KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) is actively tracing the assets of an international investment fraud syndicate that was crippled in Op Tropicana last month.
MACC, in a statement today, said efforts to track the illegal assets and money are being carried out in collaboration with Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) and international bodies including Interpol, United Kingdom's National Crime Agency (NCA) and the United State's Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
"This effort comes right after four main masterminds who are foreigners have been successfully charged in the Shah Alam Sessions Court on March 16, 2023 and in the Butterworth Sessions Court on March 17, 2023, three weeks after the operation was launched.
"The four United Kingdom nationals were sentenced to prison and fined after pleading guilty to an alternative charge under Section 416 of the Penal Code," the statement read.
It was previously reported that the MACC had smashed the international investment scam syndicate , which had raked in a whopping RM200 million from victims in Australia and the United Kingdom.
On Thursday, Shah Alam Sessions Court judge Rozilah Salleh ordered two investment fraud syndicate ringleaders, Andrew Mark Peters and Darren Anthony McNicholas to six months in jail for cheating an individual out of RM600,000.
Yesterday, the Butterworth Sessions Court sentenced two United Kingdom citizens, who acted as managers of a boiler room of an international investment fraud syndicate, to six months in jail and a fine of RM100,000 for cheating two individuals out of RM52,781.81.
Sessions Court judge Zulhazmi Abdullah also ordered 48-year-old Lloyd George Bedwell and 46-year-old Roger Hoi Wing Wu's jail sentences to begin from the date of their arrest on Feb 21.
Meanwhile, on the allegation that five major banks are being monitored by the MACC on their involvement in the fraud syndicate, the anti-graft agency clarified that the investigation is more focused on the individuals rather than the financial institutions.
"The individuals are a number of 'professional enablers' including bank officers, accountants and company secretaries who enabled the illegal syndicate to operate.
"The MACC will continue to work closely with BNM and other enforcement agencies to combat international fraud syndicates," it added.
The New Straits Times (NST) on March 16 reported that five major banks in the country have come under the MACC radar for being used by international scammers to dupe victims, who transacted up to RM1 million a day after being conned.
The NST learnt that at least 20 employees of the banks - including auditors and frontline officers, had facilitated such syndicates to open accounts without any hassle.