Bank Negara, Malaysia’s Central Bank issued a press statement on the joint raids by enforcement agencies on the gold buy-back schemes on 10th Oct 2012. Below is an extract of the statement:

“…it has been discovered that these companies are operating schemes that are believed to be not sustainable to provide the promised high monthly returns, nor would they be able to provide the buy back guarantee of gold.  Such schemes are not sustainable because the returns promised are not funded through gold trading, but from the monies invested into such schemes.  The investigations have also revealed that the amount of assets and monies held by these companies do not commensurate with the amount collected from their investors. “

If what Bank Negara said is true that returns are not from gold trading but from monies invested, then such schemes may well turn out to be what is commonly ...