Macau (MNA) – Some 56 Macau investors claimed to have been scammed after investment in a real estate project in Indonesia through local company TH Group Limited, according to a report by TV channel MASTV.
TH Group Limited is headed by Onida Lam, the sister of legislator Agnes Lam, with investors said to have invested between HK$600,000 (US$76,437) and HK$800,000 each – for a total of a around HK$33.6 million and HK$44.8 million – in a project named Indonesian Street City, a high end commercial, residential and cultural complex to be developed as a satellite city of Bintan city in the Indonesian island of Bintan.
The TH Group – founded in 2010 in Macau by Indonesian businessman Sunny Sukardi – was developing the project through its subsidiary PT. Sun Resort, with the project to be concluded by December 2015, but having consequently suffered several delays.
According to the report, investors were promised to be able to lease their purchased property to the company after completion, with the TH Group indicating they could be able to receive 200 per cent returns in their investment.
Investors indicated that Ms. Onida Lam had blamed the project delay over intense rains in Bintan Island and on a court dispute between TH Group Limited and its parent company in Indonesia, the report stated.
According to a China Daily article, Mr. Sukardi founded the ‘Indonesian Street – Indonesian Home and Lifestyle Center’ in Shanghai in 2008 having a few years later, added branches and franchises in the cities of Beijing, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Kunming, and its Macau branch, TH Group, in 2010.
In an interview with Macau Daily Times in 2014, Mr. Sukardi was addressed as the CEO of TH Group, with Ms. Lam described as COO, however she is currently defined as CEO at the company’s website.
TH Group is described in its website as focusing on international trade of Indonesian products, research and development of herbal medicines and cultural exchange between China and Indonesia.
The website also indicates that the company’s subsidiaries include Indonesian Street (Macao Shop), Insense, Harimau Green Pharmaceutical Industry Co. Limited and PT. Sun Resort, with affiliated companies including Quest Biotech Limited, Poto Asia Limited and ISC Asia Limited.
In his interview with Macau Daily Times, Mr. Sukardi indicated that the Indonesian Street City project was to be ‘a tourist and cultural destination’ that would include a 24-hour service ferry to Singapore charter direct flights from Mainland China, Macau and Hong Kong, in cooperation with Garuda Indonesia.
Mr. Sukardi also stated that the first phase of the project would require an investment of some US$700 million with around US$30 billion to be needed in total, adding that some 5,000 Chinese enterprises wanted to invest in the project.
The MASTV report indicated that investors claimed that in 2015 the Indonesian Macau and Hong Kong Consulate had checked the contacts signed without raising any issues, but that upon recent review it indicated that the contracts were not valid.
The Consulate was said to have indicated that since the investors were not Indonesian nationals; because the contract was not written in English or Bahasa; and because it didn’t had authorisation from the Indonesian government than the investors wouldn’t have any claim to the property even after completion.
Macau News Agency (MNA) attempted to contact the Indonesian Consulate, the TH Group, Ms. Onida Lam and Ms. Agnes Lam, but as of the time this article was published no response had been received.
