HK director ordered to pay HK$2m to investor
A judge has ordered an investment company with a Hong Kong director to pay more than HK$2 million to one of its 10,000 Indonesian investors who claim to have been ripped off for hundreds of millions of dollars.
Elly Norindah Poerwanto turned to the Court of First Instance to try to retrieve HK$2,117,500 from a dishonoured cheque from Dressel Investment, the company she invested in under a scheme that promised returns of 24 to 28 per cent.
Danny Wong, the only one of the four directors to be based in Hong Kong, is on Interpol's wanted list. Indonesian police have issued a warrant for his arrest for suspected fraud.
Ms Poerwanto's cheque had been dated January 31, but when she tried to cash it she found that the payment had been countermanded by the drawer. She said she and her family had invested US$245,000 in the offshore investment scheme.
No one from Dressel Investment opposed the writ, which was filed on June 30. The registrar of the Court of First Instance issued a default judgment on August 10. The success of the action has led to three other investors planning to file similar writs.
Mr Wong, 44, has been arrested by Hong Kong's Commercial Crime Bureau and questioned in connection with the allegations, but the bureau would not confirm if he had been charged.
A police spokesman would say only that the bureau would not comment on the case because investigations were continuing.
However, he did comment on how police handle local citizens on Interpol's wanted list.
'If a person who appeared on the Interpol wanted list and the country [seeking that person] requests Hong Kong police assistance in arresting that person, Hong Kong police will seek an arrest warrant through the courts,' he said.
Hong Kong and Indonesia have an extradition treaty. The Indonesians have accused Hong Kong police of not taking their complaints seriously and of not keeping them informed of developments.
Mr Wong spoke to the Sunday Morning Post in February when seven investors from Surabaya visited Hong Kong to lodge complaints with police and to protest outside his Music Chamber office in Wan Chai, where he ran a company dealing in antique violins.
At the time, he insisted there had been no fraud, only rumours of a failure to pay dividends in November leading investors to demanding their capital back.
Mr Wong could not be reached for comment on the latest developments and the Music Chamber's office has closed.
There was no answer at the company's main number.
Ms Poerwanto's lawyer, David Lam, said Dressel had an office registered in Hong Kong but appeared to have no assets.
It is also registered in the British Virgin Islands.
In March, the Jakarta headquarters of PT Wahana Bersama Globalindo, Dressel's partner in Indonesia, were sealed by the building's management.
Its offices elsewhere in Indonesia have also closed.
The case is being investigated by authorities in Indonesia. Police there arrested Wahana Bersama Globalindo's (WBG) president Krisno Abiyanto in May and later arrested two other executives.
About 10,000 investors had put US$385 million into Dressel through WBG. Several prominent Indonesians lost money in its scheme.
