Legitimate Business or Scam?
This is the question that many of us are still pondering on – was it a scam right from the beginning? Or did Bestino really have honest intentions but were unfortunate in the quality of their advisers? Or perhaps they started with honest intentions but got greedy along the way?

If it was a scam from the beginning, then they have no intentions of paying us back. We have to recognize this and if we want our money back, we have no recourse but to take legal action. It is pointless to keep knocking on their doors. However, if they had honest intentions, we can give them the benefit of the doubt that they are trying to raise the money to pay us back.

A satisfactory answer to this question is very important to allow us to move forward. Hence, let us recapitulate the facts.

YM Chong comes from the family that owns Batu Pahat Goldsmith. This company is very well established, much respected and has created a niche for itself within the Indian community. The confidence to invest in Bestino was in a large part due to the Batu Pahat Goldsmith name. The question is: would YM Chong risk soiling the reputation that his father had worked so hard to build? I personally find it hard to believe that he would do so. Or perhaps he thought he could keep the two separate and no one would associate Batu Pahat Goldsmith with Bestino?

Bestino Berhad runs legitimate businesses. Of that there can be no doubt. Apart from the goldsmith shops, they run the PNG refinery which was awarded to them by the PNG government. They also have 3 factories producing natural oils. Would Bestino put all of these in jeopardy just for a miserable RM400 million scam? But then again, these businesses are continuing to run and do not seem to be in jeopardy.

In 2008, Bestino announced that it would be issuing an IPO in Singapore. This was later pulled back. Was this just an elaborate hoax to gain the confidence of the people? Again, I personally find this hard to believe.

Then, there is the other side of the equation.

Bestino collected the last of their gold bars from investors on 30th April 2009. Less than 2 months after this, they were raided and their bank account frozen. Can this be chalked up to coincidence? Maybe. But the fact remains that their gold bars are safe and our money is gone. They offered a gold bar investment scheme for 3 years with no problems with the authorities. But when the gold bars had all been taken back, the authorities raid.

In the document filed with SC, Bestino has clearance to issue RM400 million in preferential shares. But Bestino collected in excess of RM400 million and they continued collecting up till they were raided (mid June). Is this the action of an honest company? If what they were doing was legal or what they thought was legal, shouldn’t they have stopped collecting when they reached RM400 million?

I was told that one of their directors used to work in SC in a senior position. If this is indeed true, then wouldn’t this person know the internal workings of SC and know that the actions Bestino was taking were illegal? Wouldn’t he be able to advice Bestino correctly? Or could it be that Bestino knew what it was doing was illegal but decided to take the risk anyway? A risk which they took with our money and without our permission.

Bestino claimed that they were misled by their company secretary into believing that what they were doing was legal. This was a huge mistake by the company secretary. What happened to the company secretary? Fired? Legal action taken? If none of the above, that was very forgiving of Bestino. Anybody knows what happened to the company secretary?

For me personally, there are two actions of Bestino that I take issue with.

Firstly, the misinformation being given out by Bestino. Everytime, I call the company, I get a different story. The stories sometimes contradict each other. If Bestino was honest and sincere, they would make the effort to keep their investors updated. By updated, I do not mean sending out letters that do not say anything.

Secondly, their seeming lack of interest in paying us back. Although they say that "it is our business responsibility to pay back all the 6764 customers amounting to more than RM400 million (Bestino letter dated 14 Nov)", the only action they have taken is to try and sell their goldmine. No other efforts seem to be made to pay us back. No contingency measures that we know of.

So scam or legitimate business? What are your thoughts? Please do share if you have further information and facts that can shed more light and help us reach a conclusion. [/spoiler]
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May I know now the Geneva still ok?