Lim Siong Aik, 44 pictured escorted by the police at George Town Magistrates’ Court, July 12, 2021. — Picture by Sayuti Zainudin
GEORGE TOWN, July 12 — A 44-year-old man was jailed for 17 years and six months by the Magistrates’ Court here after he admitted to 70 counts of having in his possession unlawfully obtained money.
Lim Siong Aik admitted to the 70 charges of having in his possession sums ranging from a few hundred to a few thousands in a bank account of a company, “BIA 1983 Resources”, which was registered under his name.
The sums deposited into the account on 70 different occasions were suspected to have been fraudulently obtained sometime early this year.
Lim was charged under Section 29(1) of the Minor Offences Act 1955 for possession of stolen items which carried a maximum sentence of RM1,000 or jail of up to a year or both upon conviction.
Magistrate R. Manomani sentenced him to three months’ jail for each charge bringing the total jail term to 17 years and six months but she ordered for him to serve the sentences concurrently so he will only serve a three-month jail term.
According to prosecuting officer Siti Hajar Jaafar, Lim is facing a total of 300 charges under the same section but only 70 charges were read out to him today.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Yazid Mustaqim Roslan said August 24 was fixed for the remaining 230 charges to be read out to Lim.
The cases against Lim are believed to be linked to an investment scam that had used the acronym “BIA”, which stands for Brunei Investment Agency, to dupe the victims.
BIA had officially issued a warning against scams using its name and had stressed that it was not involved in any investment schemes offered in Malaysia.
It was reported that over 100 reports involving over RM2 million of losses were lodged with the police over the BIA investment scam nationwide.