☕️ RM1 bil crimes - of drugs and pump-and-dump investment scheme

1. MARKET SUMMARY 📈

2. NUMBERS AT A GLANCE 🔢

21,722 missing persons in a decade – Over the past 10 years, more than 20,000 individuals have been reported missing in Malaysia, with 64.3% (13,969) of them under the age of 18, according to police statistics. Alarmingly, nearly 60% (12,882) of the total missing persons are female, raising serious concerns about the safety of the nation’s youth. Deputy Comm Fadil Marsus of Bukit Aman’s Criminal Investigation Department highlighted the need for urgent measures to address this troubling trend and protect vulnerable groups, particularly young women and children.

422,000 centenarians by 2054 – The number of Americans aged 100 and older is projected to more than quadruple, from 101,000 in 2024 to 422,000 in 2054, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Centenarians currently represent just 0.03% of the U.S. population but are expected to grow to 0.1% by 2054. This trend reflects a steady rise since 1950, when there were only 2,300 centenarians, increasing to 37,000 by 1990. The surge highlights advancements in healthcare and longevity, reshaping demographics and societal needs in the coming decades.

AUD386 mil (RM1.07 bil) in research funding at risk – At least six Australian universities have seen American funding for research projects paused or cancelled as US agencies align with President Trump’s “America First” agenda. The Australian National University (ANU) was the first to confirm the termination of funding, with other institutions likely affected. The US is Australia’s largest research partner. The Trump administration has also sent questionnaires to Australian researchers, probing topics like drugs, transgender policies, and Christianity, signalling a shift in research priorities and collaboration.

3. IN MALAYSIA 🇲🇾

RM1 bil crimes 

• RM1.06 bil drugs intercepted
  Bukit Aman Narcotics Criminal Investigation Department Acting Director DCP Mat Zani @ Mohd Sallahuddin Che Ali announced that the police had recorded its largest-ever drug bust following the seizure of RM1.06 bil worth of methamphetamine weighed a whopping 33.2 tonnes at Port Klang. For you to have a graphical representation in your mind, 33.2 tonnes is about the weight of 20 Proton X70s and the value of RM1.06 bil is more or less the construction cost of the Sungai Buloh Hospital (Sungai Buloh Hospital costs RM1.3 bil, completed in 2006). Mat Zani added that the seized methamphetamine was stored in 83 blue drums and was believed to have originated from Iran. Malaysia is the transit point of the drugs before they reach their final destination in Sydney, Australia. Checks revealed that they were registered as cosmetic processing materials and wax. Mat Zani stated that if the drugs were distributed to the market, they could supply to as many as 166 mil addicts.

• RM946 mil fraud investment scheme unravelled 
  Five Malaysians - Cedric Lim, Ko Sen Chai, King Sung Wong, Siong Wee Vun and Kok Wah Won were indicted by the US Government for their alleged involvement in a ‘pump and dump’ investment fraud scheme, which resulted in seizures of about RM946 mil. The scheme unfolded between Nov 2024 to Jan 2025, that ended up in tears - the share price of the company involved fell by 99%. So, how does a ‘pump and dump’ scheme work? It is a manipulative scheme that attempts to boost the price of a stock or security through fake recommendations. The perpetrators of a pump-and-dump scheme already have an established position in the company's stock and will sell their positions after the hype has led to a higher share price. The five Malaysians are at the moment indicted with wire and securities fraud charges, which are punishable with a maximum of 20-year and 25-year jail terms respectively.

• Young Kelantan ‘entrepreneurs’ busted 
  The Inspector-General of Police, Razarudin Husain is ‘unbuttoning the trousers’ of some young Kelantan individuals as he said that some young individuals in Kelantan, who enjoyed lavish lifestyles, were involved in drug, firearm, and contraband smuggling activities across the Kelantan-Thailand border. He warned that the police will intensify its operations to dismantle these illegal syndicates operating along the border. So, if you have a Kelantanese friend who suddenly owns a few Mustangs and BMWs, you may want to unfriend him or her soon.

Business

• Malaysian Aviation Group Bhd (MAG), the parent company of Malaysia Airlines, has decided to choose Boeing as the supplier of its new aircraft for the second stage of its fleet renewal strategy. In this 30+30 deal, an initial order of 30 aircraft - a mix of 18 Boeing 737-8 and 12 Boeing 737-10, will be placed, with options for 30 more 737 aircraft down the road. Malaysia Airlines at the moment is struggling to maintain its ageing fleet as the company has to cut 18% of its network capacity or cancel 6,300 flights, in the fourth quarter of 2024, partly due to aircraft delivery delays.

  In response to the announcement, Boeing Global president Brendan Nelson stated that the company will increase its Malaysian workforce by 20% over the next two years. Currently, Boeing employs more than 1,000 Malaysians at its manufacturing plant in Kedah, which is Boeing’s only plant in Southeast Asia.

• Reported by The Malaysianist, your favourite Mamee-Double Decker snack brand, owned by the founder family’s investment vehicle, Pacific Global Ventures, is set to receive a bonanza RM1 bil investment from Kumpulan Wang Persaraan Diperbadankan (KWAP) soon, as part of Putrajaya’s GearUp programme, aimed at driving GLIC investments in high-growth, high-value industries. Prior to this news, KWAP has already invested RM450 mil in late February 2025 for 9.3% of the company. In its fiscal year 2023, the company generated revenue of RM1.34 bil and net profit of RM119 mil.

• After struggling to be profitable since its inception, Carsome Group Inc. has decided to resort to self-reported accounting and announced that the company has achieved its first full year of profitability based on its own preferred measure for the first time. Carsome stated that it has registered USD10.5 mil (RM46.4 mil) in adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA). However, details of how the EBITDA figure was adjusted were not disclosed, and the company also did not provide other financial information such as revenue in the statement. Makes you wonder if measured by normal accounting standards, just how ‘profitable’ this Malaysian unicorn is.

Shorts

1. The Selangor Forestry Department announced that starting from April 1, visitors to Selangor's permanent forest reserves will no longer have to physically seek approval at the Forestry Department's district branch offices as all permit applications for recreational and hiking activities can be submitted through the Selangor Forestry e-Permit System (SeForest). The department added that the application link will be displayed on April 1, while usage instructions have been uploaded on their social media page. Hopefully, it is not one of those April Fools announcement.

2. Former PM Ismail Sabri, who is currently being investigated by MACC, has reiterated that no BN MPs have rescinded support for PM Anwar Ibrahim and pledged his full support for his successor Anwar Ibrahim and the Madani government. Ismail added that the rumour of 13 BN MPs pulling out is just a slander aimed at dividing BN and creating distrust among BN MPs.

4. AROUND THE WORLD 🌎

Israel orders Rafah residents to evacuate, another Hamas senior leader killed
The Israeli military on Sunday urged residents of the southern Gaza city of Rafah to evacuate as forces launched an offensive against militants in the area. Rafah, on the Gaza Strip’s border with Egypt, was already the target of a major Israeli offensive about a year ago. 634 Palestinians including children, women and the elderly have been killed after Israel unilaterally broke the ceasefire deal last Tuesday. In the latest predawn strike in Gaza, a senior member of Hamas’s political bureau, Salah al-Bardawil was reportedly killed alongside his wife while doing prayers in a tent shelter in Khan Younes. In defiance, Hamas said that the martyrdom of Salah al-Bardawil would fuel the battle for liberation and independence in Gaza. Several senior Hamas leaders have also been killed ever since.

Before breaking the ceasefire, Israel in early March blocked the entry of humanitarian aid into war-ravaged Gaza and cut the electricity supply, in a bid to force Hamas to accept the Israeli terms for an extension of the ceasefire and release the 58 remaining hostages. The electricity supplied by Israel had fed Gaza’s main water desalination plant, and the decision to cut power has aggravated already dire conditions for Gaza’s 2.4 mil people.

Watch a heartbreaking on-the-ground POV of a missile strike in Gaza here. Madness.

Trump, Trump, Trump

• Trump revokes legal status for 530,000 immigrants in the US
  Trump’s administration has declared that the temporary legal status of 530,000 people including Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans in the US will be revoked in April. This effectively cut short a two-year “parole” granted to the immigrants under former President Joe Biden that allowed them to enter the country by air if they had US sponsors. Amid Biden’s struggle with high levels of undocumented immigration from those nationalities, he apparently launched a parole entry programme for Venezuelans in 2022 and expanded it to Cubans, Haitians and Nicaraguans in 2023. Trump argued that the legal entry parole programmes overstepped the boundaries of federal law, and he called for their termination in a Jan 20 executive order. His administration’s decision to strip this legal status could make many vulnerable to deportation if they choose to remain in the US.

• Trump endorses the idea of joining the Commonwealth nations
  Meanwhile, responding to an article in a Daily Mail report that the British monarch could pitch President Trump on joining the Commonwealth as an “associate member” during an upcoming state visit to Britain, Trump simply endorsed the idea and said, “it sounds good to me”. However, the President with his tariff hike has fuelled diplomatic tensions within the Commonwealth with his feud with Canada, a Commonwealth member. He has also spoken about his desire to annex Canada, which has King Charles as its head of state. To protect ASEAN’s trading interest, he probably would entertain being an associate member of ASEAN too. 

George Foreman made way more money from his grills than boxing
Heavyweight world champion and Olympic gold medalist George Foreman left the world at age 76 last Friday, but the legacy of endorsing a game-changing grill remains. More than 30 years ago, the George Foreman Lean Mean Fat-Reducing Grilling Machine became a cultural phenomenon among health-conscious consumers. The grill offers fast, smokeless, indoor grilling, which garnered sales of 100 million units in the 15 years since its launch and several of them are still on Amazon's best-sellers list.

The grill manufacturing company Salton said that Foreman was being paid about 40% of the profits from the grills, generating a USD4.5 mil monthly paycheck at the height of its success. He received an even bigger payout in 1999 when Salton bought the rights to use his name on the product in perpetuity for USD127 million in cash and USD10 mil in stock. Foreman got about 75% of the payout, which was structured as a long-term capital gain to reduce the sellers' tax liability. He was pretty much set up financially for the rest of his life. Compared to his boxing career, his biggest payout was only the USD5 mil fee for the "Rumble in the Jungle" against Muhammad Ali in 1974.

Shorts

1. South Korea declares state of emergency as wildfire spread

   Three firefighters and a public servant have been confirmed dead in an amassing wildfire in South Korea, which began in Sancheong county on Friday afternoon. The South Korean government has declared a state of emergency in the North and South Gyeongsang provinces, while other wildfires also occur in several other areas across the country. The forest agency has issued “severe” fire warnings, its highest level, in 12 locations, including North and South Gyeongsang provinces, Busan and Daejeon.

2. Tesla’s retail fans buy the stock at a pace never seen before

   Despite plunging sales and stock values, there is a group of individual investors who are still enthusiastically buying Tesla’s stock — the ardent fan base of Elon Musk. These investors have been net buyers of Tesla shares for 13 straight sessions up to March 20, pumping USD8 bil into the stock. They analyse Tesla in great detail in online forums and largely function as a hype crew for the stock. For context, Tesla’s share price has sunk 17% over this time, wiping out more than USD155 bil from its market value. Its shares have been on a steep slide since mid-Dec 2024 when it touched an all-time high fuelled by optimism from US President Donald Trump’s election victory.

3. Apple appears to be losing USD1 bil per year on its streaming service

   A report by The Information disclosed that Apple TV+ is apparently causing Apple to lose more than USD1 bil per year, and is the only service in the company's portfolio that is not profitable. The streaming service launched in 2019, and Apple has spent around USD5 bil on content each year, subsequently dropping it to USD4.5 bil in 2024. Despite Apple TV+ productions earning more than 2,500 award nominations and wins, the streaming service has lagged behind Netflix, Disney+, and Amazon Prime Video when it comes to subscribers.

5. FOR YOUR EYES 📺

1. ‘Selamat Hari Raya dari kami yang take puasa’ - Raya MV by comedian Douglas Lim. A truly wholesome Malaysian video.

2. The scale of time — our modern history within the 13.8 bil years of cosmic evolution, doesn’t even deserve to be a rounding error.

3. Luxury that truly matters. Though, having a Hermes Birkin isn’t too bad.