JOHOR BARU: He told everyone that his father has brain cancer and needed money for treatment. But as soon as he raised RM350,000 from family, friends and loan sharks, he disappeared with the money.
His mother Tan Choon Hong, 56, said she was not surprised because her eldest son Koo Mun Chang, 34, was always borrowing money from her after she helped him open a sports apparel shop in Skudai.
“He would usually ask for RM20,000 to RM40,000 from me and my daughter, telling us that he wanted to buy stock from a supplier in Singapore.
“I even used up my funeral savings to help him,” she said at a press conference yesterday.
Her son, she said, even sold the house they were living in at Taman Ungku Tun Aminah and took the RM70,000 down-payment from the buyer, saying that he needed the money urgently for his ailing father.
Her ex-husband was in good health, she said.
Tan said that after her son’s disappearance on Nov 3, she found out that he had also borrowed from loan sharks.
Now, two Ah Long groups are threatening to harm the family unless she settles his debts of at least RM20,000.
Koo Mun Chang
“One group chained the front gate and door of my home on Thursday evening while we were out.
“My youngest son and I have to stay with my daughter now,” she said.
She wondered what could have happened to Koo that he needed so much money.
“I am so fed up and disappointed with him and no longer want to acknowledge him as my son,” she said.
Gelang Patah MCA division chief Jason Teoh, who organised the press conference, said he would help Tan.
Johor Baru North OCPD Asst Comm Mohd Khamsani Abdul Rahman said an investigation was in progress.