QuickCheck: Is an insurance fraud syndicate linked to a Johor murder probe?

WHEN it comes to crime syndicates, it is not unheard of for insurance fraud to be one of the ways for these groups to make money through illegal means.

That said, it is rarer – and consequently more shocking – for such syndicates to kill unwitting people as part of their modus operandi.

It was claimed recently that an insurance syndicate is being investigated in a Johor murder probe. Is this true?

VERDICT:

TRUE

Johor police chief Comm M. Kumar confirmed this, saying that the syndicate was uncovered during an investigation into the murder of a 38-year-old man in Kulai who purportedly died in an accident on May 6.

He said the investigation revealed that the syndicate killed the victim so it could claim compensation from a life insurance policy of the deceased.

“The modus operandi of this syndicate is to buy an RM500,000 life insurance policy for an individual chosen randomly without the victim’s knowledge, usually a person without kin or family.

“After the documentation process and the victim’s insurance policy is approved by the (real) insurance company, the syndicate then schemes to kill the contributor with a plot in which the victim meets a fatal accident,” he said.

Comm Kumar added at a press conference at the Johor police contingent headquarters on Tuesday (June 25) that eight men aged 23 to 49 were arrested to assist in the investigation.

He added that police are hunting for other syndicate members still at large.

Earlier, Kumar said the ‘accident-killing’ occurred at 4.40 am when the motorcycle-riding victim was crushed by two cars and a motorcycle on Jalan Senai-Seelong in Kulai.

He said four individuals then beat the victim before he was run over by a truck that happened to be passing through the road, killing the victim.

“After the victim died, a suspect applied for an insurance claim through an agent who is also a member of the syndicate.

However, this insurance claim did not have time to be processed because the syndicate’s modus operandi was uncovered by the Johor police Criminal Investigation Department,” he said.

The case is now being investigated under Section 302 of the Penal Code for murder with the four individuals who were arrested charged in the Kulai Magistrate’s Court on June 19, while the other four were out on bail, he added.