We were allowed to fly, says Suasa Airline owner
Segambut MP calls for probe into ‘new’ airline as the owner is said to be linked to an illegal multi-marketing scheme mastermind.
PETALING JAYA: The businesswoman behind Suasa Airlines has denied operating a flight without a permit.
Jessy Lai, the founder of MonSpace Group which owns the airline, was quoted in China Press as saying that the Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) had allowed the flight to take off from the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) to Langkawi last Friday evening.
She had also reportedly posted on her Facebook page two letters from the DCA which purportedly allowed the airline to operate flights for 72 hours (from last Friday).
Yesterday, the Malaysian Aviation Commission (Mavcom) revealed that Suasa Airlines was under probe for operating a commercial flight without a valid Air Service Permit (ASP), and that it had on June 22, rejected an application from the airline to fly the KL-Langkawi route.
Meanwhile, Segambut MP Lim Lip Eng has asked the Government and the Chinese embassy here to probe whether Lai was carrying out a “Nanning” investment scam behind the facade of the airline.
He was quoted by the daily as saying that Lai was a former associate of China national Zhang Jian, who once proclaimed to be the “future richest man in the world” and ran the YSLM multi-level marketing scheme, which is said to have conned people in China and Malaysia of some RM900 million. The 26-year-old was arrested in Thailand in December 2014.
Lim claimed that MonSpace (M) Sdn Bhd used a direct-selling model like YSLM – imposing a fee of RM500 for “normal members” and RM5,000 for shareholders.
Under the model, “passive members” are given 300 bonus points once every three months, while “active” members will have to bring in two new members under them, in exchange for more bonus points which can be exchanged for cash or other rewards.
Lim also claimed that 90 per cent of MonSpace were China nationals – with each of them investing millions of renminbi.
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