The Consumer Association of Sabah and Labuan (Cash) has stumbled on a well-organised 'land scam' that has duped thousands of unsuspecting owners in the state, Sarawak and Peninsular Malaysia of apparently small sums of money over the last two years.

bill gates and george soros Cash secretary-general Hashima Hasbullah Yahya estimates that about 7, 500 people in Sabah, mostly Chinese, 500 in Sarawak and 2, 000 in Peninsular Malaysia have been relieved of their money by a network set in place by the Tawau-based individuals operating as a legitimate company. She declined to reveal the name of the company or the principals behind it except to say that two directors are actively involved in the scam.

"Let the police do their work and announce their findings. We came into the picture after nine victims approached us after lodging police reports against the company. There are many others out there who may have just decided to forget about their unfortunate experience," she said.

The modus operandi of the company, according to the nine victims, is to appoint 10 to 12 principals in each state. The principals in turn have to appoint agents or runners and the number can run into hundreds.

The agents would deal with landowners who are interested in entering into a joint-venture with Microsoft founder Bill Gates, the world's richest man, and his billionaire 'partner', the hedge fund operator George Soros who was vilified for the 1997 Asian currency crisis which caused a run on the Thai baht, Indonesian rupiah and Malaysian ringgit, among others.

Elaborate seminars

Apparently, according to the tall tale spun by the Tawau company, Gates and Soros have jointly established an initial US$20 million fund to either buy up land or enter into a joint venture with land owners in Malaysia for various development projects.

The scam begins with landowners, many with as little as an acre, being persuaded by the network set up by the company to attend a 'seminar' which will go into the details of the joint-venture land development with Gates and Soros.

Each participant i.e. landowner has to fork out between RM50 and RM100 to attend the seminar, the varying amounts depending on the location and venue. Often, the participation fee was paid by either the principals or the agents or both who try to rope in as many participants as possible for the 'seminars'.

The seminars are an elaborate hype conducted by the two directors of the company.

Participants are asked during the seminar to provide a photostat copy of their land title or grant for the company’s verification as well as for forwarding to Gates and Soros. Each participant would also have to pay the company RM50 as processing fee and for the administrative costs entailed.

Police investigating

Landowners who are 'interested' in making their landed property available for joint venture with Gates and Soros would have to open a joint bank account with another person, perhaps a friend, family member or relative. The account holders would each have to fork out RM50 to the company as registration fees.

Upon successful completion of the joint-venture 'deal', for example, the landowner would receive in US dollars, 10 percent of the land cost from the millions of US dollars allocated to the company to carry out the land transactions; the principal would receive one per cent and the agent concerned 0.5 percent. The 10 percent would be credited into the joint account.

The 10 percent sum would be preceded by a personal phone call to the landowner by either Gates or Soros himself.

According to Hashima, the nine victims who approached Cash are all either principals or agents who lost a small fortune paying upfront the various fees on behalf of their landowner clients.

"The scam, according to the nine victims, have drawn in many influential people as principals and agents and this made the whole modus operandi 'credible' to those lured by the company to their misfortune," she said.

"The sums involved, if totaled, snowballs into millions. We are also concerned that the photocopied land titles would be falsified and misused in some manner. We have had reports in the past of even photocopied land titles used for ulterior purposes," she added.

Hashima urged other victims of the scam to come forward and report to the police and Cash.

Police were not available for comment but it was learnt that they will issue a statement next week on the nine police reports lodged. The matter is presently under serious investigation.

Police will also seek the co-operation of the Land and Survey Department in the matter.