Forest City love scam: Two Chinese nationals jailed, 18 Indonesians plead not guilty

JOHOR BAHRU – Two Chinese nationals pleaded guilty at the magistrate’s court here on Wednesday to charges of being members of an online fraud syndicate or love scam operation earlier this month.

Lin Kun Chi, 30, and Bai Kan, 30, entered their pleas before Magistrate A. Shaarmini after the charges were read to them in Mandarin.

In the same proceedings, 18 Indonesian nationals were also charged and pleaded not guilty after the charges were read to them in Malay.

All the accused were charged with jointly conspiring to carry out an online fraud attempt using a love scam modus operandi at Forest City, Tanjung Kupang, earlier this month.

According to the charge sheet, they were accused of being parties to a criminal conspiracy and agreeing among themselves to commit an unlawful act, namely attempting to deceive victims through a love scam scheme.

The offence was allegedly committed at a premises in Jalan Forest City 17, Gelang Patah, Tanjung Kupang, Iskandar Puteri, at about 12.16pm on July 15.

They were charged under Section 120B(1) of the Penal Code for criminal conspiracy to commit an offence under Section 417 of the same law, read together with Section 511 of the Penal Code.

If convicted, they face imprisonment of up to five years, a fine, or both.

The case was prosecuted by deputy public prosecutor Anis Syafeeqah Mohd Shariffudin, while all the accused were unrepresented.

In their mitigation pleas, the two Chinese nationals requested a lighter sentence, claiming they had been deceived by employment agents, had families in China and promised not to repeat the offence.

The court then sentenced both men to one month in jail and fined them RM7,000. Failure to pay the fine would result in an additional six months’ imprisonment.

For the 18 Indonesian suspects, the court allowed bail at RM50,000 each with two Malaysian sureties.

The court set Aug 11 for mention and said a letter would be sent to the Indonesian Embassy should it wish to provide legal assistance to the accused.