AS talk surface of JJ Poor to Rich (JJPTR) making a comeback, police say the case against the Penang-based unlicensed forex trading outfit is with the deputy public prosecutor’s (DPP) office.

Penang commercial crime investigation department chief Assistant Commissioner Abdul Ghani Ahmad said the police were awaiting instructions from the DPP.

“We opened three investigation papers on JJPTR. All cases investigated in Penang had been referred to the DPP’s office.

“We are awaiting instructions,” he told The Malaysian Insight in a text message today.

Last week, several dailies reported that JJPTR was making a comeback under a different virtual currency platform called “Nexcoinz” that offered 25% profit when shares “split”.

It is believed that JJPTR investors were notified of the scheme through their old private chat channels.

They were told they could convert their previous investments into coupons in US dollar value, which is also known as the Nex coupon. The coupons can be sold for cash or invested in the Nexcoinz platform.

In a Whatsapp message, a JJPTR investor told The Malaysian Insight that those interested in the new scheme were to log onto the website www.nexcoupon.com “to verify their coupon with equivalent JJ value.”

Old JJPTR members can use their existing login ID and password, or refer to their up-line if they have forgotten their login ID.

The coupons are in the value of US$25 (RM105)  to US$1,000. The cheapest, Coupon A is for an invested amount of US$25 to US$100. The most expensive is Coupon J for an investment of US$901 to US$1,000.

The coupons will be officially launched on September 15. However, it is unknown whether the people behind Nexcoinz are the same people who had operated the JJPTR scheme.

JJPTR was a scheme founded in May 2015 by Johnson Lee, 28. Investors were offered a 20% monthly return on their investments of between US$25 and US$1,000. 

On February 24, Bank Negara listed JJPTR, JJ Poor to Rich and JJ Global Network in its Financial Consumer Alert of companies unauthorised to offer financial services by the central bank.

On April 23, Lee claimed JJPTR’s forex trading account had been hacked, leading to over US$400 million in losses. He pledged to return investors’ money and introduce a new investment scheme.

In May, the police, BNM and various authorities raided JJPTR’s premises in Penang, froze the company’s accounts and arrested Lee and his two aides for almost two weeks to assist investigations into allegations of cheating.

In July, police told reporters that probes into JJPTR in Penang alone showed there were investments of RM239,310, out of which only RM30,332 had been paid out in return. 

He said the probes were to establish grounds to charge the money game operator, adding that Bukit Aman was monitoring the investigation under Section 420 of the Penal Code for cheating. – September 10, 2017.