GENNEVA Malaysia Sdn Bhd, the company at the centre of a once-popular gold bullion investment scheme, has been fined RM450 million after being found guilty of money-laundering and illegal deposit-taking.

The Edge Markets reported that Kuala Lumpur High Court judicial commissioner Ahmad Shahrir Mohd Salleh yesterday also imposed a RM1 million fine each on two other firms – Success Aptitude Sdn Bhd and Ng Advantage Sdn Bhd – found guilty of money-laundering.

Eight individuals linked to the three companies were sentenced to between three and nine years in jail and fined between RM1 million and RM4 million each for their part in the scheme that drew in some 50,000 investors.

Shahrir ordered their prison sentences to run consecutively.

The eight are either former directors or advisers at Genneva, Success Aptitude and Ng Advantage.

Charged in 2013, the three firms and eight individuals were found to have illegally collected some RM7 billion in deposits and laundered RM4.5 billion.

Shahrir allowed them to post bail pending their appeal at the Court of Appeal.

Bank Negara Malaysia began investigating Genneva in 2009 for illegal deposit-taking.

In 2017, the sessions court acquitted and discharged all the accused.

The prosecution appealed the decision, leading to yesterday’s high court ruling. – August 5, 2020.