Police bust MLM racket
The Jakarta Post | Wed, 03/30/2011 9:53 AM |
Balikpapan Police in East Kalimantan have arrested a woman for fraud after she allegedly tricked members of the public into investing money in a multilevel marketing (MLM) business, promising huge profits.
The get-rich-quick scheme left at least 47 Balikpapan residents of pocket after they invested a total of Rp 35 billion.
Police began investigating the case “after receiving reports from victims,” Balikpapan Police chief Sr. Adj. Comr. A Rafik said Wednesday, as quoted by tempointeraktif.com.
The alleged fraudster, Ade Farida, proposed victims invest in the MLM scheme selling Milo energy drink, he said.
“[By investing] Rp 8.4 million, they were promised profits of Rp 1 million in 10 days,” Ade said.
One of the victims, Dwi, said the scheme had run smoothly for almost a year. But victims had stopped receiving profits since January this year.
Police said the number of victims could grow since the alleged fraud had been going on for almost a year.
“Anyone who has fallen a victim [to this fraud] can report to Balikpapan Police,” Rafik said.
Ade has denied the police accusations of fraud, and said she was just another victim of the main actor, Nadir, who she said had fled to Situbondo, East Java.