Police have received 16 reports against two property development cooperatives based in Subang Jaya, Selangor, in connection with the cheating case involving non-existent affordable housing projects with total loss amounting RM13.6 million.

Bukit Aman Commercial Crime Investigation Department director Amar Singh Ishar Singh in a statement today said the police received reports against the cooperatives and detained an individual with the honorific title of ‘datuk’ on Feb 7.

"The datuk is the 52-year-old chief executive officer of the first cooperative and chairperson of the second cooperative.

“The suspect claimed that he was appointed as an agent for both cooperatives to appoint interested contractors to build affordable housing projects nationwide,” he said.

He said the suspect, under the first cooperative offered construction projects in Kedah, Negeri Sembilan, Pahang, Perak and Johor, while projects in Malacca, Kedah and Perak were offered under the second cooperative.

He said the suspect’s modus operandi involved appointing the victim’s company as the contractor for the construction of affordable homes nationwide.

The suspect would also bring the victims for a site visit to the land earmarked for the project and produced some documents to prove that the project did exist and received approval from local authorities, to convince the victim, he said.

He also stated that the victims who were deceived by the suspect had paid the performance bond of between RM300,000 and RM2.3 million in the name of the cooperatives.

“Once payment is made, the victim then signed a joint venture agreement prepared by the cooperative and given a promise that the construction work would commence within 18 months after the agreement was signed.

"However, after 18 months, the victim did not receive any instruction to commence work and after investigating, the victims learned that the promised projects do not exist,” he said.

He said the suspect was still under remand for further investigation and did not rule out that more individuals would be detained in the near future to assist in the investigations under Section 420 of the Penal Code for cheating.

- Bernama