PETALING JAYA: Police arrested a local actor and two others in relation to an affordable housing scam, in which investors were said to have been duped of some RM6.2 million.

In a statement today, Bukit Aman Commercial CID director Acryl Sani Abdullah Sani said the scam was carried out by DBI Properties and Juta Kelulut Global Resources.

Under the scam, investors were offered to purchase a 1,650 square feet bungalow below market price, at just RM60,000. But the houses were never built, leading to 188 police reports being lodged.

According to Acryl, his men arrested DBI Properties managing director Noruliman A Rahman, an actor who is popularly known as "Dato Boy Iman”, at the Bukit Indah police station in Ampang.

"Following checks at the suspect's office in Wisma DBI, we also seized a Nissan Fairlady, a BMW E92, three mobile phones, a PhD from the Samaritan Mission International University and documents belonging to DBI Properties.”

Separately, police also arrested two other suspects in the case at a condominium in Setapak, Kuala Lumpur. The two men, aged 45 and 29, are the owners of Juta Kelulut Global Resources.

The police also seized two mobile phones and documents from the company.

All suspects are being remanded for two days, beginning today and will be investigated under Section 420 of the Penal Code for cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property.

"Based on our investigations, we found this syndicate was manipulating the people based on their needs and developing all sorts of schemes and investments to attract their victims' attention" Acryl said.

He added that this was evident through the development of business, gold and housing schemes.

Acryl also advised members of the public to be careful and not to fall for any extraordinary scheme or offer made by any individual or company.

"The public must carefully evaluate any scheme or offer which looks extraordinary and seek advice from the relevant agencies to avoid falling prey to such schemes.”

Previously, Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government Minister Noh Omar said his ministry would work with the police and the domestic trade, cooperatives and consumerism ministry to take down companies which were carrying out affordable housing scams.

This came in the wake of Noh saying he was shocked to be linked to the DBI Properties scam after he was seen attending Noruliman's Hari Raya open house in July.