Founder of troubled investment scheme leaves voice note for members

BUTTERWORTH: The supposed founder of a troubled high-yield investment scheme is working on a plan to help members who suffered losses according to a voice note posted on the Facebook page of the company.
According to the note, purportedly by JJPTR (JJ Poor to Rich) founder Johnson Lee, he was working on a new plan which needed the approval of 40 of his Introduce Brokers (IBs) at 40 branches nationwide.
He said he needed to obtain the consensus from all of his IBs before carrying out the new plan.
He said he would be meeting with all the IBs to finalise the plan and expressed hope the plan can be unveiled before May 1.
"I hope all members can give me until May 1, this plan can save members who have suffered losses," he said in the post uploaded today.
Lee also dismissed talk he has fled the country and that he was still in Malaysia.
The voice note in Mandarin has also been widely circulated in JJPTR groups on social messaging apps Whatsapp and WeChat.
In the one minute and 48 seconds note, Lee also told listeners not to donate money to him nor donate to people who were using his name.
"I do not need the money," he said and thanked the listeners at the end of the recording.
The company running the scheme is in trouble after it claimed its trading account was hacked resulting in losses of US$50 million (RM218.26 million).
There are also reports and social media posts claiming the losses could even reach RM500 million.
The high-yield investment scheme, popularly known as "money game", was established in 2015 and accepted investments as low as US$25 (RM109.15) and promised returns as high as 20% a month.
A visit to the main office at Jalan Perak here showed some people filling up forms to get their capital returned to them but staff there did not allow photographs to be taken.
A representative there said the office is open to assist members to fill up the forms but declined further comment.
Checks on the website showed all contact information has been taken down and no new sign ups were accepted.