KUCHING: A gold investment company Genneva Malaysia Sdn Bhd was ordered by the Kuching High Court to pay compensation of more than RM30 million to 232 individual plaintiffs today.
Judge Datuk Lee Heng Cheong made the ruling after examining the losses suffered by all the plaintiffs as well as the concrete evidences.
Lawyers representing the plaintiffs, namely Wong King Wei, Clement Wong Teck Hoo and Alex Ngu Sze Shae were satisfied with the judge’s ruling.
According to Wong King Wei, a total of 269 plaintiffs filed a lawsuit against the gold investment company but 37 of them acted to quash the suit after that.
“I am satisfied with the judge’s ruling which is a benchmark for the judicial system in Malaysia.
“Victims of fraud should come forward to defend their rights because the court will make the appropriate judgment,” he told reporters after the trial at Kuching High Court here.
He stressed that individuals or companies that breached the contract should be responsible for the offences committed and they should not run away.
Earlier, all the plaintiffs claimed that they were introduced into four types of agreements, namely, the purchase of gold products, purchase and redemption of gold for the next stage, as well as the resale of gold products to defendants.
However, the plaintiffs (considered as gold investors) claimed that they suffered a total loss of RM37,351,520 when the company failed to provide gold products or the value of gold purchased.
Following that, all plaintiffs who invested around the end of August to early September in 2012 applied for special damages from Genneva Malaysia Sdn Bhd, which also included interest rates and general damages.
Such case was also reported in Peninsular Malaysia after 1,065 gold investors filed a suit against the same company for breach of the agreement.
It is understood that the case was the first to occur in Sarawak.
