Tan Kin Lian's Blog: Need to investigate alleged cheating

Tuesday, October 06, 2009

Need to investigate alleged cheating

Dear Mr. Tan,
If someone make a foolish investment without proper checking and later complained to the Police (or Commercial Affairs Department) that he has been cheated, do you expect the CAD to take action? Surely the CAD has other priorities to take care of?

REPLY
You are right. The CAD cannot investigate every complaint. It has to prioritize.

If there are several complaints made against a specific company alleging cheating, the CAD should start a preliminary enquiry. If the company is acting honestly, it will provide clarification and information to convince CAD that their activities are legitimate, and the matter can then be closed.

If the company refuse to cooperate or be transparent about its activities, there are grounds for CAD to suspect possible wrong doing. CAD can take the next step to investigate, gather evidence to frame a charge against the company for violating the law. Even if the evidence is not sufficient to be used in court, the company may be prepared to change its practices and even compensate the victims.

Recently, there were a few cases in New York State where the Attorney General was able to get financial institutions to compensate the losses suffered by their clients due to doubtful business practices. This is settled without admission of guilt, avoids a lengthy hearing in court and is a good outcome.

If CAD cannot take gather sufficient evidence to take action, they can at least warn the general public to avoid these doubtful practices, so that other people will not fall into the same trap. If CAD and the Attorney General is more active, many of the investment scams and alleged cheating can be minimized. We will have a better business climate in Singapore.

Tan Kin Lian

9 comments:

Anonymous said...: The rule of engagement in Singaporean mindset is complaint and CAD investigate.

After the MB/HN5/Pinnacle saga, I believed the rule of engagement is

i) Complaint to MAS, reply is seek private lawyers, go FI, go Fidrec, go Law Society

i) Complaint to Ms and MP. Reply is "We have direct your complaint to MAS"

Conclusion: As long as the top does not give the green light, don't expect your complaint to have any attention. If the department does not think your complaint worth showing to the top, it is as good as not complaining. For unless you can get MPs or Ms to say that your complaint is important, it is as good as not complaint. Plainly speaking, your complaint will be thrown into the trash bin almost immediately but will get a nice standard reply of "SORRY" which means DON'T WASTE MY TIME...; October 06, 2009 9:19 AM
Sobri said...: Dear Mr Tan

Recently I received a pre-approved Black credit card from DBS in conjuction with Amex.

Though I have no interest in activating it at all, I decided to read the agreement anyway. What surprised me was this:
------------
Transaction in Foreign Currencies

Transactions in foreign currency other than US Dollars will be converted into US Dollars before being converted into Singapore Dollars.
--------------
This means if one were to use the card in Malaysia, the cost in Ringgit will first be converted into US$, and then converted again into SGD. Is this the standard practice of bank credit cards?

Also, the Annual fee was applicable, no where was it stated what the fee would cost.; October 06, 2009 9:29 AM
Anonymous said...: Like Sobri, I had one too.

But at least need ATM card to activate it.

I once received a pre approved card asking me to just sign and return a form to activate it.

What will happen if the pre-approved card had been lost in the mail?

The way the banks are pushing credit cards leave much to be desired. Maybe this is a highly profitable segment, besides selling structured and investment products.; October 06, 2009 1:05 PM
Anonymous said...: To Sobri, these sort of nitty-gritty details please check with the bank. Different bank, different card, different privileges, different policy. Cannot expect all banks the same.; October 06, 2009 3:43 PM
Anonymous said...: banks are using the telemarketeers to hunt for people who roll over their credit. Once caught, they will suck them dry.

The Americans have just wake up from their problem of spending on credit. As far as I am concern, only have 1 or 2 credit cards that gave you lots of discount e.g. petrol discount. Forget about the rest and that will save you lots of potential loss, credit card debt problem.; October 06, 2009 7:06 PM
Vincent Sear said...: I think the word and allegation "cheating" has been unwarrantedly proliferated and even absued here. "Cheating" is a strong word and a serious allegation. It can result in imprisonment of the accused person if proven guilty or attract a counter-suit of defamation if the accused person is proven innocent.; October 06, 2009 9:04 PM
Anonymous said...: Vincent,

"Cheating" is a serious allegation indeed. It is even more serious if it involves more than $500 million.

I have previously written about such a cheating case as a comment in

http://tankinlian.blogspot.com/2009/09/which-government-agency-is-responsible.html .

The authorities have turned a blind eye to it. Surely, such a blatant case cannot be left unchallenged.

The High Court case ([2008] SGHC 116) for the collective sale of Gillman Heights was presided by Judge Choo Han Teck and in his judgment dated 25 June 2008, he wrote

"The greater complaint was that the NUS appeared to have invested in the shares of the Purchaser. This would be relevant under s 84A(9)(a)(i)(C) above. Mr Yeap submitted that the NUS-Purchaser relationship was not raised before the Board even though the information the minority now relied upon was publicly available, and the witness from the NUS who testified before the Board could have been questioned on it. I thus agreed that the evidence that was sought to be adduced afresh before me should not be admitted. A court deliberates only on the basis of the evidence before it. While making sure that evidence of impropriety has not been overlooked, the court must also take into account the potential procedural impropriety by a party not adducing the relevant evidence diligently in the hope of keeping such evidence in reserve for a second stage assault. By its nature, such evidence and tactics are difficult to detect. The way to prevent them is to adhere to the rules of evidence as strictly as possible. Whether or not there was an act of bad faith by reason of the relationship between the relevant parties is strictly a finding of fact for the Board. I am not persuaded that the Board ought to hear the parties again on the issue of the relationship between the NUS and the Purchaser. As for the contention of bad faith in regard to the sale price (this would be under s 84A(9)(a)(i)(A) above), I am in full agreement with the reasons given by the Board (see GD at [55]-[63]) why there is no bad faith in the present case, given the sale price of $548m, which is $20m above the reserved price."

See http://www.hope4stayers.com/text_judgement_02.htm for the complete judgment.

This put on record that the cheating occurred.; October 07, 2009 9:55 AM
wjsim said...: Vincent is right. Many times it is just consumer's ignorance. Something just popped in my mind. Perhaps we can include financial education in Polytechnics and JCs when people are about to hit the legal age to sign legal contracts.

Human will always be greedy and go around rules to "cheat". You can't blame a plane crash on gravity. There is no end to regulations to control the symptoms.

Currently, people acquire skills to earn money through education. Has it taught them how to use and manage it?; October 07, 2009 12:39 PM
Anonymous said...: sobri dot be stupid, is 'standard' & if u not sure, not sign or activate e card,why u singaporean so stupid with so many complaints?! and yet, still can offer u BLACK AMEX CARD, ur years of education bring u only with such lowly complaint(of life), see e greater pictures!complaints in & out here seems focus only on self!OMG, if this is SE pple standard & mentality, surely this govt to be elected in every term is better cuz,ur issues are so mandane & really, this country lacks talents & "a few good men.."TKL must be tired to read all these stupid comments everyday...YAWN!; October 08, 2009 5:06 AM