By Tessa Wong

MORE than 1,000 investors have been left high and dry after two investment companies, under investigation by the police, appear to have closed shop.

Both companies were recently in the news for having riled their customers with allegedly suspicious practices, leading many of them to lodge complaints with the Consumers Association of Singapore (Case).

One of the companies is wine investment firm Universal Assets Group (UAG). Its office at BTH Building in Defu Lane 10 was sealed about three weeks ago by the building's property management office. The landlord, Success Global, said the company had defaulted on 1-1/2 months' rent.

UAG offered wine trading and brokerage services, as well as a scheme where clients could buy wine and sell it back to the company a year later for a profit.

Its clients, said to number about 1,000, have investment portfolios ranging from $6,000 to $91,000.

In May, a group of them filed police reports about the four-year-old company regarding overdue payouts that had been promised to them in writing.

So far, the investors have either seen only a small part of their promised returns or none at all.

The second firm being investigated is time-share company Maxmega. It is said to have vacated its premises in Tras Street about two weeks ago.

In May, a group of disgruntled consumers complained to Case that the company had failed in its promise to recover their investments with other time-share companies and to give additional payouts.

Many of the customers had signed contracts and paid substantial fees upfront for this service. The fees ranged from $5,000 to $40,000.

But they were later told by Maxmega that it could not retrieve their investments and were asked to give even more money for another venture.

So far, Case has received 17 complaints about UAG and 33 complaints about Maxmega.

Case served a voluntary compliance agreement two weeks ago to Maxmega's directors Yaacob Yusoff and Muhammad Yazid Samri. The agreement would have committed them to ending unfair practices, failing which Case would file an injunction to stop Maxmega's operations. The directors had not replied by the deadline of June 30.

'The directors are not contactable, and we are very worried that they may have run away with our money. We hope that the police can trace them,' said Mr Wong Liang Yong, 69, one of the Maxmega investors.

Case is trying to track down the directors of UAG to serve them the same agreement.

If there is no response from either company, Case will leave it to the police to investigate further, said the association's executive director Seah Seng Choon.

He added: 'We are still trying to propose proper legislation to regulate the way in which 'investments' in such outfits are being conducted so that consumers' interest can be better protected.'

In both cases, disgruntled customers have banded together to figure out ways to reclaim their money.

Representatives of both groups said they were waiting for police investigations to be concluded before considering taking legal action.

This article was first published in The Straits Times.