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.
