Kuala Lumpur: The High Court has ordered gold trading company Genneva Malaysia Sdn Bhd and its three former directors to pay RM2.2 million in damages to three former investors, including the estate of the late humanitarian Mother Mangalam.
Justice Atan Mustaffa Yussof Ahmad ruled that the plaintiffs had successfully proven their claims against the company and its former directors — Ahmad Khairuddin Ilias, Philip Lim, and Tan Liang Keat — for operating a “systematic fraudulent scheme,” Free Malaysia Today reported.
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The plaintiffs had sued to recover money and gold products they invested in Genneva’s gold trading scheme between 2011 and 2012, alleging they never received the purchased gold nor had their funds returned.
In his 134-page judgment, the judge held the directors jointly and severally liable alongside the company, stating they could not “shelter behind the corporate veil.”
He described them as “the controlling minds and operators of the fraudulent scheme” who had misrepresented Genneva as a legitimate enterprise while knowing it was an illegal deposit-taking scheme.
“They induced the plaintiffs to part with substantial sums of money and gold under false pretences,” Mustaffa wrote, finding that their claims in fraudulent misrepresentation, breach of trust, and unjust enrichment were all established.
The court ordered the defendants to pay special damages of RM1,093,070 to Lim Ting Chai, RM938,490 to Shi Li Li, and RM309,560 to the estate of Mother Mangalam, along with interest and legal costs.
The defendants have filed an appeal.
Mother Mangalam, whose full name was A. Mangalam S. Iyaswamy Iyer, was the co-founder and former president of the Pure Life Society and died in 2023 at the age of 97.
According to her sister and estate administrator, A Thanalakshmi, Mangalam had invested RM309,560 in the scheme using funds from her 2010 Merdeka Award.
