GEORGE TOWN: Tens of thousands of investors from all over the world, including Canada, the United States and China, stand to lose RM500mil with the reported collapse of JJPTR, said to be one of the country’s biggest money game operators.

However, its 28-year-old founder Johnson Lee (pic), in a post on JJPTR Ma­­laysia Facebook page at 2pm yesterday, said he has a plan to repay (newer) investors by mid-May the amount they put into his company.

An investor, who declined to be named, said he sensed something amiss when the 20% (RM800) dividend of his RM4,000 investment was not deposited into his bank account on April 20.

Previously, it had been quite punctual with the dividend payment, he added. He signed up as an investor in De­­cember and had got back RM2,400 so far.

“This means I’m still RM1,600 out of pocket.

“The agent told me the company will be paying back investors who have yet to break even but I’m not holding my breath.

“I’m lucky that I only invested the extra money I had. I heard of people investing their life savings,” he said in an interview.

Despite the negative news, it is learnt that JJPTR, which had been active for more than a year, still opened its JJ Service Centre in Ta­­man Ipoh Timur, Perak, on Saturday.

However, Lee, who was supposed to attend the opening, was absent.

The opening of the company’s service agent centre in Jalan Raja Uda, Butterworth, which was to havebeen on Sunday, has been postponed.

Its offices in Perak Road, Bayan Lepas and Bandar Baru Air Itam on the island and Jalan Raja Uda on the mainland were closed yesterday. JJPTR also has branches in Kulim and Johor Baru.

Over at the JJPTR social media platforms, some investors said they were willing to stop receiving their monthly dividends until the company gets back on its feet.

However, there were some who questioned Lee’s claim that JJPTR accounts were hacked.

Penang Commercial Crimes Investigation Department chief Asst Comm Abdul Ghani Ahmad said no police reports had been lodged against JJPTR so far.

“It is quite normal for ‘investors’ to wait six months to a year before lodging police reports in the hope of getting back their money.

“Penangites are always interested in taking part in such investment schemes to make fast money. There are still two or three such scams active locally,” he said.

For the past week, there had been talk online about a hacking job that resulted in JJPTR losing RM500mil.

The case made headlines in major Chinese newspapers on Monday when Lee confirmed the rumours on Facebook, calling the huge loss “the biggest mistake of my life”.

According to the Chinese press, the initials of JJPTR not only represent “Jie Jiu Pu Tong Ren” in Chinese (salvation for the common people) but are also linked to one of its associate companies, JJ Poor to Rich.

JJPTR, JJ Poor to Rich and JJ Global Network are the three forex trading entities listed on the website, www.jjptr.com.

The companies are among the 288 entities and individuals that are on Bank Negara’s Financial Consumer Alert list as of Feb 24.

They are neither authorised nor approved under the relevant laws and regulations administered by the central bank.

Members of JJPTR are asked to invest between US$25 and US$1,000 (RM110 and RM4,400) and promised a monthly return of 20%.

Attempts to reach Lee were unsuccessful.