13 PEOPLE INCLUDING CIVIL SERVANT ARRESTED FOR INVOLVEMENT IN LAND TITLE TRANSFER SYNDICATE

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 26 (Bernama) -- Police arrested 13 individuals including a civil servant on suspicion of being involved in land title transfer fraud activites.

Bukit Aman Commercial Crime Investigation Department (CCID) director Datuk Seri Ramli Mohamed Yoosuf said seven men and six woman, aged between 26 and 59 years, were arrested following a police report lodged by a assistant district officer earlier this month.

“The assistant district officer said there were several suspicious land title transfers occurring illegally, as well as the loss of several documents involving land transfer forms from the safe," he said at a press conference at the Bukit Aman CCID office here today.

Ramli said the investigation found that a syndicate and cartel in the land office was carrying out illegal land title transfers, believed to be conducted by exploiting the system by deleting and erasing important transfer records.

Commenting further, Ramli said among the suspects detained was a staff of the district and land office but he declined to elaborate further as the case is under investigation.

He said so far six illegal land transfer transactions, involving six identified plots of land in the case, have been investigated under Section 420 of the Penal Code.

In a separate case, a 65-year-old senior citizen lost more than RM1.1 million after falling victim to a syndicate of phone scammers yesterday.

Ramli said the victim, a retiree, lodged a report in Penang after receiving a call from an Islamic financial institution on Oct 18, claiming that his account was involved in money laundering activities.

"The victim was then contacted by an individual from the Ampang Police Station who allegedly would conduct an investigation on the complainant and the victim was reminded not to disclose the investigation to others or else the victim would be detained.

"The victim was also instructed to report to 'Madam Suraya' five times a day, who supposedly was a prosecutor," he said.

He said the victim was then instructed to open a new account and transfer all his money to that account, as well as provide the banking details to the syndicate.

He said that the investigation found that the money from the victim's newly opened bank account had been transferred to several unidentified banks through 60 different transactions.

Ramli said the victim realised he had been cheated when recounting the incident, and the case is being investigated under Section 420 of the Penal Code.

He also urged children to advise their parents, uncles, aunts, relatives, and friends, especially the elderly about such scams and to make it a part of their conversation agenda to that they will be aware and alert when they receive such calls.

-- BERNAMA