A very unpleasant incident occurred in the construction sector in Bali. The police received a report from the director of PT Industri Vertikal Indonesia (PT.IVI), Russian Aron Geller. In his report, Geller stated that Nikolai Melnik, the deputy director of his company, is suspected of embezzling investors' funds. The amount in question was quite significant - approximately $3,850,000 or about 57,750,000,000 rupiahs. According to the victim, after the theft, Melnik fled to his home country, Belarus.
All these funds were collected from 128 investors for the construction of the Karma Kandara apartments, which never began. Alex Barung, Aron's legal advisor, explained that Melnik's duties as deputy director were to find investors for the construction of the residential complex. Over time, however, things started to seem suspicious.
Aron suspected something was wrong when one investor after another began appearing at the office, asking if their funds had been received by the company and how far the project had progressed. Aron replied that he had not yet received the funds. It is believed that Melnik had already fled the country by that time.
"The funds from investors were supposed to be deposited with OCBC Bank according to the contract, but Melnik took matters into his own hands and secretly, allegedly on behalf of the company, created a cryptocurrency account. It is believed he forged the director's signature and company stamp to do this. As a result, the funds from investors were not credited to the company's account but ended up in a cryptocurrency wallet," explained Alex.
Based on Aron's report, the police checked the company's account. Investigators concluded that the investors' funds never reached the account of PT Industri Vertikal Indonesia.
Meanwhile, Aron Geller stated that the investors participated in the project because PT IVI is quite well-known in Europe. Now, due to Melnik's actions, the good name of the company has been tarnished.
"I am not a fraudster. PT IVI is also not a fraudulent company. I sincerely hope that the police will thoroughly investigate this crime and involve Interpol," Aron concluded.
The police are still investigating the case. This was confirmed by the Head of Public Relations of the Bali Police, Senior Commissioner of Police Jansen Avitus Pandjaitan.
In Indonesia, it's quite difficult to prove your rights to investors, even within so-called 'investment agreements,' which are usually drafted in English here (for a contract to be legally binding in Indonesia, it must be composed in the official language - Indonesian), without considering local regulations. Such agreements do not guarantee the protection of investors' rights. The most appropriate approach in this case is to become a co-investor of the company by purchasing a share. Through a share purchase agreement, the investor becomes one of the company's co-founders and, based on the articles of association (which is a legal agreement between the company's founders), has the legal right to receive dividends or share in the assets in case of company dissolution according to the share he owns and has actually paid for.