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Police probes shareholders of firm in savings racket
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Posted on Jan 10 2001
Police investigators are set to begin questioning the remaining shareholders of Long City Traders Corp. to shed light on the savings scam that victimized hundreds of garment factory workers on the island.
This developed as Kwan Y. Chung, 53, the biggest shareholder of Long City Traders, has reportedly fled Saipan.
Long City Traders is a jewelry shop that also offers financial services. Garment factory workers were duped into depositing their money to the company in exchange for higher interest rate.
Due to the huge number of garment factory workers who were victimized by the savings scam, police gave out questionnaires to the garment establishments to be distributed to their employees to facilitate the gathering of information, according to Department of Public Safety spokesperson Rose Ada.
The workers were told to write down the amount they have deposited to Long City Traders as well as the date they started giving the company their money. Police estimate that the number of garment factory workers who were victimized could reach 700.
When news broke out that Long City Traders has already closed shop, hundreds of garment factory workers trooped to the police station to file their complaints hoping to recover their money.
Work in several garment factories slowed down as employees refused to go to their job, preferring to visit the police station instead. “We cannot handle all of them because we do not have enough people to do the job of interviewing the victims,” said Capt. Delbert Sablan.
Distributing questionnaires is the most efficient way of handling the problem which shocked the whole island due to the huge number of victims.
One of the victims claimed that she gave her savings amounting to $35,000 to Long City Traders, hoping that the company will double her investments.
This is the second savings scam to be discovered on Saipan as police promptly arrested the Chinese couple who victimized 45 garment factory workers. (Lindablue F. Romero)
