KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 4): The Attorney General's Chambers (AGC) said on Tuesday that investigators have not retained any of the assets that were seized in relation to the ongoing investigation of i-Serve Online Mall Sdn Bhd and its related companies.
In a statement, the AGC said the probe into businessman Datuk Allan Goh Hwan Hua, which is linked to the i-Serve Online Mall case, is also ongoing, and that it is monitoring the process of the investigation.
It also said the alleged offences under investigation involve complex commercial transactions and money flows.
The AGC's statement came after it was reported that 15 investors who won an RM8 million fraud judgement against Goh, i-Serve Online Mall, and three related companies had called for the release of Goh's seized assets to satisfy the court order. Goh is also known as the co-founder of the now-defunct MYAirline.
The court ruling was delivered in September this year. In the suit, the investors alleged that the companies had failed to make the agreed-upon monthly payments between November 2021 and June 2022, despite numerous letters of demand. They also claimed that Goh had misrepresented the legitimacy of the investment schemes run through the i-Serve group and related entities. Goh and the four companies were ordered to repay the investors a total of RM7.61 million and S$170,000 (RM546,604), plus RM100,000 in legal costs.
Following the court judgement, the investors’ lawyer, Sachpreetraj Singh Sohanpal, told a news briefing on Nov 1 that his clients were appealing to the police and Bank Negara Malaysia to release a portion of Goh’s frozen assets — said to amount to RM118.7 million — to satisfy the court’s order. This is because recovery of the sum has been difficult as many of the companies involved had either wound up or gone dormant.
In its statement, the AGC said that assets seized as part of the investigation into i-Serve Online Mall and Goh had all been returned to their owners.
"Based on investigation, enforcement authorities had initially seized assets belonging to i-Serve Online Mall Sdn Bhd and other related companies amounting to RM118.7 million on Nov 11, 2021, not in November 2023, as reported. However, the seized assets were subsequently released after i-Serve Online Mall Sdn Bhd and the other related companies were subjected to a compound penalty," the AGC said.
A second seizure of assets related to i-Serve Online Mall and associated parties was then carried out by the police between October and December 2023. The assets seized, valued at RM71.3 million, were also released later — between October and December 2024 — as the police failed to conclusively demonstrate that the seized assets were proceeds of a crime.
"Consequently, at this juncture, there are no longer any assets related to i-Serve Online Mall Sdn Bhd that remain under seizure by enforcement authorities," the AGC added.