According to the OJK, the investment alert task force had yet again closed the operations of six companies this month after shutting down six illegal investment firms in January and another seven in February.Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The government, through its Investment-alert Task Force, has, since early this year, shut down the operations of 19 investment companies for not holding permits.
Comprising seven ministries/state institutions, the task force has been set up to handle bogus investment companies and to prevent investors from falling prey to their operations.
The task force members are the Financial Service Authority (OJK), Trade Ministry, Communication and Information Technology Ministry, and Cooperatives and Small Enterprises Ministry, Attorney Generals Office, National Police, and Capital Investment Coordinating Board.
According to the OJK, on Sunday (March 26), the investment alert task force had yet again closed the operations of six companies this month after shutting down six illegal investment firms in January and another seven in February.
"Their operations have the potential to harm the interests of the public and are believed to be breaching the rules," the task forces chief, Tongam L. Tobing, who is also OJKs director for policy and investigation support affairs, said in a written statement in Jakarta on Sunday.
Tobing noted that since January, the team had shut down the operations of 19 investment companies, which had no licenses.
The OJK executive disclosed the names of six companies closed in March: Starfive2u.com, PT Alkifal Property, Groupmatic170, EA Veow, FX Magnet Profit, and Koperasi Serba Usaha Agro Cassava Nusantara in Cicurug, Sukabumi, West Java.
"They should stop operations soon until after they have secured operating licenses from the authorized institution," Tobing asserted.
Based on the investigation of the Investment-alert Task Force, the six business entities failed to prove the legality of their business, to clarify their business activities, and to present the domicile of their business.
StarFive2U, for instance, has been offering a fund investment opportunity to investors through trade, commodity, and crypto currency businesses since 2014. It offers a profit of five percent per day for a period of 20 days from the account opening date for an active member. It charges a commission of 1.5 to two percent.
However, the domicile of the business activities of StarFvie2U.com was unknown. Moreover, no information was available regarding its management and those responsible for its business. StarFive2U.co is viewed as not being transparent.
Meanwhile, PT. Alkifal Property also has business activities, which could not be accounted for. The company offers house ownership without a house ownership credit scheme facility. The domicile of its business is also unknown.
"It has unclear management, and no information is available on the people responsible for its operations. The details of its business activities are also not known," Tobing pointed out.
Hence, Tobing stated that the OJK had urged investors to avoid conducting investment activities with the six business entities. It also appealed to the people to report to the task force if they found business entities operating without business licenses.
The Investment-alert Task Force had earlier also closed the operations of six firms in January and another seven in February this year.
The six companies shut down in January were PT Compact Sejahtera Group, PT Inti Benua Indonesia, PT Inlife Indonesia, Koperasi Segita Bermuda/Profitwin77, PT Cipta Multi Bisnis Group, and PT Cipta One Global Indonesia.
The firms shut down by the task force in February were PT Crown Indonesia Makmur, PT Number One Community, PT Royal Sugar Company, PT Kovesindo, PT Finex Gold Berjangka, PT Trima Sarana Pratama (CPRO-Indonesia), and Talk Fusion.
Hence, Tobing has called on the people to check the legality of investment companies before entrusting them with their money.
"They have to check if the company offering investment products has a permit to operate," he stressed.
The government set up the Investment-alert Task Force to protect people from money collection activities or money games which disguised as cooperatives, bogus multi-level marketing (MLM) firms and gold businesses. The are operating in many cities or villages.
The main task of the task force is to speed up the handling and prevention of those fictitious investment activities by deploying law enforcers and regulators.
Data available at the Attorney Generals Office up to June 2016, for instance, showed that there were 640 reports on fictitious investments. Attention should be given to this, because they develop with the presence of effective technology.
With technological sophistication, fictitious business operators can use different facilities to tempt people with big profit sharing promises that could eventually entice and victimize them. It is the task force duty to prevent this.
There are 406 illegal companies that need to watch out. Regulators also need to have the same perception in this regard, not only at the central government level but also in the region.
Based on the OJK report, up to June 11, 2016, people have asked for information or questioned the legality of 430 companies offering investment opportunities.
Of the number, 374 offered financial investments such as gold, foreign exchange, e-money, and e-commerce, apart from hajj and minor hajj investment.
There are 56 others which offered investments in the property sector and the plantation and commodity business.(*)
Reporter: Andi Abdussalam
Editor: Heru Purwanto
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