SINGAPORE: Two former directors of a company that sold gold bars to the public in a buyback scheme went on trial on Monday for fraudulent trading. They were allegedly involved in a multimillion-dollar Ponzi scheme that drew more than 2,000 investors.
A third co-accused, Wong Kwan Sing, has absconded and is wanted by the police. He was last located in Malaysia. Maitland and How began approaching sales agents to help market the Gold Buyback Scheme, offering monthly commissions for agents' sales. They told the agents that The Gold Label would engage in back-end gold trading to generate the requisite returns, but refused to elaborate on the details of this trading, said the prosecution.
Between December 2009 and March 2010, Maitland and How allegedly received a total of 2 per cent of the contract value for each contract sold on the first month and 1 per cent of the contract value for each subsequent month for the remaining contract duration. Mr Aw said he met Maitland and How through an acquaintance when the two of them were introducing their gold business. In a meeting, Maitland and How said they were already doing business withThey claimed that The Gold Label would sell gold with internationally recognised hallmarks as opposed to Genneva's gold, saying they had connections and would like to tap the Singapore market.
There was no fixed gold bar supplier and no key supplier to provide a low price as the pair had first claimed, said Mr Aw.