Malaysia's Fraudulent Investment Group GCM Asia Cracked Down by the Police

Fraud investment group GCM Asia has been busted by the police, said Malaysia's Selangor police chief Datuk Hussein Omarhan at a press conference on Thursday.

On Aug 7, police conducted a raid against the fraudster and managed to arrest 101 suspects, who were GCM Asia's managers, operations managers, technology department employees, and customer service staff. Ninety-six cell phones, 94 computers, 47 phones, and modems and routers were also seized.

The fraud group had defrauded a large number of Malaysian residents over the past decade, causing an estimated loss of more than 2 million ringgit to victims, and had never been authorized by any financial regulator.

GCM Asia had claimed to be regulated by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) in 2013, but was actually stealing regulatory information from licensed firm Lionsman Capital Markets (Cyprus) Ltd.

Since 2014, the scammers have been obfuscating again, claiming to be partners with Fortrade Limited, a regulated firm of the UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which is also regulated by the Financial Services Commission (FSC) in Mauritius and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC). However, these three financial regulators have never issued a license to GCM Asia.

In addition, on December 10, 2020, the Securities Commison Malaysia (SC) issued a warning that GCM Asia was offering financial services and products without authorization.