Kuala Lumpur: The Government has imposed stiffer punishments to curb illegal forex trading by increasing the amount of penalty from RM10,000 to RM1 million and a jail sentence of between three to five years, said Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Dr Ng Yen Yen.She said the Government had amended the Foreign Exchange Act (1953) to provide stiffer sentences for those involved in illegal forex trading.
The amendment took effect on Jan 1 this year.
"Last year, five illegal forex traders had been caught and now the Bank Negara is investigating 10 cases," she told reporters after launching the Sports Toto Chinese New Year Ang Pow Donation campaign, here, Thursday.
Dr Ng said the Ministry of Finance had received many complaints from those had been cheated by the so-called "forex agents" who offered forex investment schemes such as those on Iraq and Iranian currencies.
"I want to say very clearly that in Malaysia, we only allow commercial bank and financial institutions to undertake the forex trading. No private entities have been given the licence to do the trading.
"I call upon Malaysians not to fall into the trap. Even money changers in the country do not do forex trading but only money changing," she stressed.
She urged the public to lodge reports with Bank Negara if they found such forex agents approaching them to invest in forex trading. - Bernama
