By Marlynda Meraw
KUCHING, March 8: There was a troubling development in the real estate scam that siphoned over RM3 million from 80 victims whereby the implicated company attempted to mitigate the situation by offering victims financial compensation in exchange for retracting their complaints, says the Malaysian International Humanitarian Organisation (MHO) secretary-general Dato Hishamuddin Hashim.
“Retracted complaints would classify the case as Discharge Not Amounting to Acquittal (DNAA), and this makes for a grave injustice for the victims,” he said in a press conference today.
Before the conference, he submitted the case complaint and charge status of the company to the assistant legal officer at the Attorney General’s Department, Timothy Rangkang.
To him, the submission of today’s case complaint and charge status was important to ensure that the case will not be dropped, no complaints retracted, nor the case be subjected to DNAA.
Hishamuddin, accompanied by several victims representing their respective districts, arrived today to offer themselves as credible witnesses testifying to the case.
Raiz, a representative for the victims from Kuching, volunteered to serve as a witness in the case.
“Getting the money back is our second priority. First and foremost is to get justice,” he stressed.
Another victim, Olee, shared that he fell prey to the scam and lost over RM300,000 as he planned to build a house on his father’s land in Miri.
Fedd, the representative for victims in Sibu, said his loss of nearly RM30,000 was attributed to misplaced trust in the company’s apparent reliability on top of being previously featured on television.
Bintulu representative Ila shared her ordeal with the media and revealed a loss of RM37,000 after receiving a project cancellation letter. Despite her persistent calls, she received neither feedback nor refunds from the company in question.
“What hurts me more is my uncle’s situation. He had been scammed out of his entire Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF), leaving him with nothing,” she said, on the verge of tears.
The case was first brought forward by Hishamuddin in 2023 and discussed with the previous police commissioner of Sarawak, Datuk Mohd Azman Ahmad Sapri. — DayakDaily
