Smart Money Grabbers over dummy investors - III

Read? Smart Money Grabbers over dummy investors - II

Kishore M Gets Reprimand from MAS

Createwealth8888: Then we have Kelvin Han, now we have Kishore kena reprimand from MAS, and who's next? Sometime, some retail investors need to step back and ask why do these people want to share their Magic Stone or Magic Goose that lays golden eggs for a few thousand bucks? Does it make any moneysense? I don't really know.

Jailed for acting as fund manager without licence


By Khushwant Singh

ADDITIONAL CHARGES: Han could not repay the $718,000 he lost and was declared a bankrupt on Jan 19 last year. Even after that, he got involved in three firms. For this, he was jailed for another month.

TRAINING firm Zone Financial was set up to teach people how to trade futures contracts and indexes.

But it acted as a fund manager between May 2004 and August 2006, collecting nearly $4 million as personal loans from 32 people.

Its managing director, Kelvin Han How Yong, 28, was yesterday jailed for five months after pleading guilty to allowing the firm to engage in fund management without a capital markets services licence from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).

Han would persuade participants at his training sessions to invest in a fund - called Kelvin's Fund - for periods ranging from a few weeks to six months.

The money was used to trade futures contracts and indexes and he promised his clients returns of 1 per cent to 5 per cent per month, depending on the amount they put in.

By the time he resigned as managing director in August 2006, he had lost about $718,000.

Two months later, the Commercial Affairs Department began investigations after several people reported to the police that Han had cheated them into investing various sums of money.

Han could not repay the money lost and was declared a bankrupt on Jan 19 last year.

He has yet to make any restitution of the $718,000 he lost while the remainder of the sum invested has been returned to the investors.

Even as a bankrupt, Han was not done yet. Although bankrupts are not allowed to engage in the management of companies without the permission of the court or the Official Assignee, Han got involved in three firms almost immediately. For this, he was jailed for another month.

The court heard that Han had asked his father, Mr Han Koon Siong, to set up event management firm Cronwell in November 2006 with a paid-up capital of $1. Between January and August last year, he took charge of the firm and managed it.

Two other charges of acting as a director of AOL Capital and Rimson Investments last year were considered by the judge when deciding on the sentence.

Zone Financial was also fined $20,000 for offering fund management services without the appropriate licence. The firm has since become inactive.

The MAS said there are 110 firms holding capital markets services licences.