Dato’ Dr Siva Ananthan – Fraudster Running Trustee Scam 2024
Dato’ Dr Siva Ananthan is one of the many people behind the shady operations of UBB Amanah Berhad.
Dr Siva Ananthan is the Executive Deputy Chairman at GV Corporate Advisory but his name isn’t mentioned anywhere on the website of the trustee firm.
However, it has only been 2 years since Dr Siva Ananthan joined that company.
Before that, Dr Sivan Ananthan was the CEO of Crest Worldwide Resources Sdn Bhd. According to its claims, the company is in property development and corporate advisory services.
Also, the company claims to be in corporate strategy advisory, corporate debt restructuring, mediation, capital formation, claims negotiation, raising private venture capital and project financing.
Another major claim of the company was that it had a vast network of contacts in various South-East Asian countries including:
- Australia
- Taiwan
- India
- Japan
- Indonesia
- Thailand
- Singapore
- Sri Lanka
- China
- Cambodia
Dato’ Dr Siva Ananthan claimed to be the Principal Legal Consultant to Amcorp Group of Companies. And the Principal Negotiator for Terra Corporation, Japan.
Did You Know?
Amcorp Group of companies is a Malaysian group of firms, that has businesses in various arenas. Few of their sectors of business are property, finance, engineering and information technology.
His profile highlights that he was the Principal Negotiator for several public companies owing over RM80 Million to Malaysian Banks.
Currently, he is involved with UBB Amanah Berhad, a prominent Cash Trust company in Malaysia.
Dato’ Dr Siva Ananthan’s Past Experience:
Before becoming the CEO of Crest Worldwide Resources Sdn Bhd, Siva was an advisor for LTT Global Communications Sdn Bhd. It is a mobile learning enterprise that focuses on expanding the mobile ecosystem.
The company offers consultancy services using mobile technology innovations. They primarily focus on raising awareness about the benefits of using mobile devices, which seems quite odd.
One of their claims is that they are the founder of the Asia Pacific Mobile Learning & Edutainment Advisory Panel.
Dato’ Dr Siva Ananthan used to be the CEO of Nirwana College from 1998 to 2003. The college specialized in offering tuition from the University of London’s Law Degree.
Prior to that, Dr Siva Ananthan ran the Advance Tertiary College for 10 years.
Siva has a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) (Honours) from the University of London.
More About Dato’ Dr Siva Ananthan and UBB Amanah:
UBB Amanah Berhad is an independent private trustee based in Malaysia. The company has been in the industry for over 30 years and claims to possess more than MYR2.6 million in assets.
Recently, their offered trusts attracted a lot of negative attention when The Edge Markets published an article highlighting how several cash trusts are Ponzi schemes.
While the report doesn’t mention any names, it does specify that some companies claim to offer returns as high as 36% per annum.
It’s worth noting that the fixed deposit rate of Malayan Banking Bhd (Maybank) is 2.1% for 12 months and 2.35% for 5 years. Note that Maybank is the largest bank in Malaysia by market capitalization.
In FY2021, Maybank had paid out 58 sen per share in dividends which amounted to a yield of around 7%. This is an extremely high number by industry standards.
So, their promised returns are certainly higher than most competitors.
What is a Ponzi Scheme?
For those who don’t know, a Ponzi scheme is an investment where someone promises a very high rate of returns at apparently zero risk.
When you deposit your funds into a Ponzi scheme, they use it to pay returns to the earlier investors and keep some for themselves.
Then, the process repeats.
They keep reiterating until everything goes too out of hand and there is no money left.
When the trust company has no money remaining, you lose your deposit.
A recent example of a Ponzi scheme is Bernard Madoff. The court sentenced him to 150 years in prison for committing fraud in 2009. His firm should have had US$65 billion in assets but in reality, it had very little.
Recent Controversy Surrounding Dato’ Dr Siva Ananthan’s UBB Amanah Berhad
Although Dato’ Dr Siva Ananthan doesn’t attach his name to UBB Amanah publicly, his involvement in the company is obvious. However, the company was in a lot of controversies recently as media reports prompted Malaysian authorities to talk about the legitimacy of ‘certain cash trusts’.
Lim Lip Eng, DAP National Public Complaints Bureau Chairman and Member of Parliament talked to the media about the legitimacy of certain ‘cash trusts’.
Dr Siva Ananthan pointed out that few financial products present in the market are going around. Certain trustee companies are offering these products and they are a big scam.
Lim highlighted that these cash trusts took RM1 billion from the market in 2020-21.
Furthermore, Dr Siva Ananthan pointed out that Bank Negara or the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) are not able to regulate these trusts properly. Hence, there are a few legal loopholes that these trustees are exploiting.
Like I mentioned earlier, UBB Amanah Berhad relies on such business tactics as well.
Instead of following the regulation of financial regulators, they fall under the regulation of the Companies Commission of Malaysia (SSM). As I mentioned earlier, SSM is not a financial regulator but an overseer of companies in general.
Also, many complaints have been sent to the SC on shady cash trust companies such as UBB Amanah Berhad.
The report sharing Lim’s thoughts doesn’t mention UBB Amanah directly. But suggests UBB is under the same scope of scrutiny.
They write:
One such company’s website says they create a cash trust when you place a sum of cash in a trust. Also, the beneficiary can tap on to the cash trust for emergencies.
They claim that a unique feature of these cash trusts is they are not frozen if the creator dies. It is still accessible subject to terms and conditions.
Also, the company claims to have over RM2.5 billion in assets under trusts. It also claims to have been operating for over 30 years.
Certainly, these are all claims made by Dr Siva Ananthan’s UBB Amanah Berhad.
What People Say About Dato’ Dr Siva Ananthan’s Company
Apart from media coverage, Dr Siva Ananthan’s company has received a lot of attention on Malaysian forums as well.
The conclusion of the discussion was that UBB Amanah is not a reliable firm and is probably a scam. However, many of UBB’s agents probably penetrated the discussion as they started praising the firm without any reason.
One user had asked the forum members about UBB Amanah Cash Trust. One of his friends had recommended UBB Cash Trust to him.
He pointed out that the product was charging 3.5% per annum. But, it claimed to offer 6-8% per annum NETT return for a 3-year product.
Also, the product guaranteed minimum RM60k. The user wanted to know if somebody was familiar with such trusts. He was interested because his FD rate was getting lower.
The first user who responded to this question was quite a new one. He started praising UBB Amanah Berhad right away in his review, claiming it’s amazing.
However, another highly experienced user pointed out that it’s a high-risk product. So, he doesn’t recommend it.
Later, the discussion on Dato’ Dr Siva Ananthan’s company went into if they have authorization in Malaysia.
Some users pointed out that it falls under the Trust Act. That’s it.
Other users began highlighting that if an offer seems too good to be true, it probably is. They highlighted that it’s very easy to start a fraudulent firm nowadays and steal funds from people by making false promises.
More Comments on the Legitimacy of the Malaysian Trustee:
Later on, users began discussing the Trust Act and how UBB is using it to make itself seem more reliable.
One user pointed out that trustees have more leeway in comparison to licensed investment managers. However, they used the word “Donor” for their investors, which seems rather odd.
How can a “Donor” expect to make 7-8% profit on their “donation”?
Here are a few images of the Terms and Conditions of this Malaysian trustee:
As you can see, UBB Amanah charges a 20% penalty if you withdraw your funds before the maturing date.
They Make “Projections” Not “Guarantees”
One user pointed out a vital aspect of UBB Amanah Berhad’s offers. They pointed out that the company claims to offer “Projected Profit Share” of 6.5% to 9% on its investment.
Projections are estimations, not guarantees. Anyone can make projections and increase them as much as they want. However, they are not guaranteed returns.
Certainly, it puts a big question mark on the legitimacy of their claims.
Later, a user highlighted that the company claims to offer 7% returns from its ‘current participants’ which might include MGS. Also, the company mentions projections in its flyers, which are abstract figures.
If their official track records had been this amazing, they would have shared this info online. Or, they would have used this data to market themselves.
Clearly, their official numbers are much lower than what they “project”.
Also, there were plenty of users in the discussion calling it a scam:
One user highlighted a different section of UBB Amanah’s Terms and Conditions. They pointed out that UBB might subject your Trust Capital to costs and expenses.
However, they don’t share what expenses or costs they charge.
In other words, they can reduce your Trust Capital as much as they want. They have used ambiguous words in their agreement deliberately so they don’t face any legal trouble for charging hidden fees.
I found another user comparing UBB with a regulated trustee. He highlighted that UBB doesn’t share any proof of its underlying investment. They don’t have any prospectus sharing this information as well.
On top of that, they don’t share any information on who the fund manager is.
They don’t share if their offered trusts are shariah compliant or not. Furthermore, there is no insurance in case the company defaults.
Victims of Dato Dr Siva Ananthan and UBB Amanah Berhad Speak Out:
A few months ago, an article was posted on this platform highlighting the shady practices of this trustee. It has received a lot of attacks from the staff of UBB Amanah Berhad, as apparent from its comment section.
However, the comments also contain a lot of complaints.
For example, one victim shares that they lost more than RM40,000 because of this company. The victim highlights that the company doesn’t care about its clients at all.
Another victim shared that he works part-time in a bar and thought it would help him to start investing to get some side-income. So, he decided to invest in Dato Dr Siva Ananthan’s firm.
The investment turned out to be a scam. Now, he highlights that the company is one of the biggest scams in Malaysia.
There are plenty of similar complaints. You can find the article on Gripeo.
Conclusion
It’s obvious that Dato’ Dr Siva Ananthan is not as reliable as he claims to be. You should be extremely wary of him and his ventures.
It would be best to avoid dealing with him.
There are plenty of Ponzi schemes and scammers operating in the Malaysian market. Another similar company which has attracted a lot of negative attention is ACE Holdings Bhd.
Dr Siva has been officially terminated from Rotary. Barring him from join any rotary clubs again due to sexual harassment cases against him. Which he has admitted he was guilty.
He has accusations of harassment going back to his lecturer times and defaulting on payments. He is even a bankrupt, can easily check from mdi website.
If the manager is not having the courage to showcase his name in public due to some reason which pretends his actual personality is a scammer. He is hiding his name from the owners.
The company is hiding the name of Dr. Siva Ananthan from the company’s owner he is managing the company without getting public.
The basic rule of the company was to attract investors by making them aware of the degrees and experience Dr. Siva held.
I was connected to Siva since he used to work as an advisor for LTT Global Communications thus his plans of expanding the market and usage of smartphones all over the world were completely odd and less connective.
My experience with these fraudsters was a complete waste of time never get attracted to the degrees they are holding.
My experience with these scammers and bragger was complete trash, I maintain distance with all the firms related to Dr. Siva Ananthan.
It is essential to be aware of these scammers and keep your money saved, hence avoid Siva Ananthan.
The company he is currently working with, UBB Ammanah is a cash trust company based in Malaysia and is also a complete scam.
Avoid dealing with these online scammers due to their hidden truths we can’t risk our money and time.
People like Dato take the help of these firms so that they don’t get exposed to the public directly; hence, they don’t want to get their name involved in the tracks of legal authorities for performing any illegal or infamous activities.
I read some of the comments supporting UBB Amanah, where you can see that many supporters of trust are posting positive comments and opposing the reviews of those who are exposing the company.
The company was handled by a great professor and a public speaker who turned out to be a scammer afterwards, but the interesting thing about this guy is that he had hired a fake team of reviewers who are posting positive comments showing the achievements of this scammer, I agree with them that he is a great professor and speaker but this is not a rule in any book that people like Dr. Siva Ananthan can’t run these nefarious trust for scamming people.
It is very sad that people like Dr. Siva Ananthan are also becoming part of scams and making money through unfair means. And the most interesting part about him is that has hired a team of fake reviewers who are posting fake comments on the articles that are exposing them.
The same incident happened to my friend who also lost a total amount of RM10000 after investing with UBB Amanah, once he read an article where this scam was exposed so he posted his incident, and after a few weeks he found some comments asking for a proof from him for being scammed and also many comments were trying to show that he is an all-rounded great person which wasn’t asked to be explained.
I read one comment where these fake reviewers asked people about the authenticity of the scam they went through and also called them being paid for posting their fake story of scam, but the question is who they are, how much did Dr. Siva Ananthan pay them to write his praises?
Why do these braggers get excited about supporting these scammers after the world is about to expose them all over the world, but the fraudulent team is working with full enthusiasm trying to make the scammer’s image get uplifted even after getting exposed?
The time is near for UBB Amanah to pack up or change its marketing company because the work of exposing these scammers is going at full speed.
This company is nothing more than a scam because my brother lost only RM5000 but the way the company is hiring people, posting positive comments, and trying to suppress the reality of the trust is very cheap.
If you will post your incident of scam on some site exposing Dr. Siva Ananthan there are chances that his team of fake reviewers will attack your comment asking for proof, but who the hell are they asking for confirmation? I read some comments where they asked for proof of being scammed by the trust, one question for them is how much money Dr. Siva paid them for posting that positive comment. Favoring this scammer means getting paid by their boss to show the positive aspects and achievements of Dr. Siva Ananthan.
He is generally regarded as a common law expert and is one of the leading law and management lecturers in the country with a proven expertise and track record of excellence over the past 23 years.
Dr Siva was Adjunct Visiting Professor at La Jolla University (USA) from 1992-1995. He was also an adjunct faculty member of the University of Southern Queensland (Australia) lecturing on their offshore MBA programme, the University of Ballarat (Australia) lecturing on their offshore MBA programme and RMIT (Australia).
He is an accomplished Professor, Corporate Consultant and Public Speaker and has delivered countless seminars and lectures both locally and internationally.
Dato Siva is an upstanding malaysian who has greatly contributed to various causes and helped many businesses. this so called gripeo is nonsense and without a shred of evidence. the perpetrators will be found and brought to justice for defaming a good man.
POSITIONS & PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
President of the National Association of Private and Independent Educational Institutions (NAPIEI) (1995 – 2000)
Director of the Pan Pacific Association of Private Education (PAPE) (1995 -2000)
Governing Council Member of the ASEAN Law Association (ALA) (1994 – 2000)
Executive Council Member of the Malaysian Ceylonese Congress (2002-2004)
Fellow of the Association of Business Executives (UK)
Member of the International Confederation of Principals (Geneva)
AWARDS
Awarded the Royal Title Darjah Paduka Mahkota Perak (P.M.P.) by His Royal Highness Sultan Azlan Shah of Perak, Malaysia in 1996
Paul Harris Fellow and Major Donor of The Rotary Foundation of Rotary International
Dr Siva was responsible for reshaping and redefining the role of private colleges as responsible corporate citizens during its infant stages of development and served as the youngest ever President of the National Association of Private and Independent Educational Institutions (NAPIEI) from 1995 – 2000. During this period he implemented a voluntary Code of Ethical Advertising and Conduct for private colleges in Malaysia and was actively involved in the development and implementation of the Higher Education Act 1996. For his efforts he was recognized with an Award for Outstanding Contribution to Education by the Honourable Minister of Education in 2001. Dr Siva has been a strong advocate for good corporate governance and has advocated triple bottom line strategies for many of the public listed companies. He has also advocated good corporate governance among NGOs and has served as an Assistant Governor of Rotary International D3300.
No matter how many complaints are posted against Dr Siva Ananthan and his goons, nothing will be done. No action will be taken. You know why?
Because he is rich.
Common folk like us don’t get the privilege he does.
He can steal from you and get away with it. You can’t even complain.
In one comment I found that a victim was trying to share his experience with this cheater / scammer but in support of Dr. Siva Ananthan one reviewer posted all his achievements and tried to brag about his post and position in the world which was never required. But the question is none of the other scammers bought these fake reviewers for posting in favor of his positions, maybe he doesn’t want to get exposed.
It seems like you are getting attacked just like that.
My interest in these fake reviewers has increased. After reading some of them I concluded that money has the power of making people write anything without cross-checking the originality. If there are places left for the fake reviewing team I can also join.
all you can do is spread lies, not provide any evidence. if you dare, go lodge a report. not whine like a fool on this stupid page
He can keep paying people off but in the end Siva Ananthan would never succeed in burying the truth.
UBB Amanah has been exposed and I am happy people are finally talking about this scam.
My whole family lost more than RM50,000 because of those thieves.
what truth? you have any evidence to back your baseless claims?
cibai, people lodge police report over RM100, you claim you lost 50k, where is your police report? don’t bullshit here please.
Horrible human being. Extremely greedy and selfish. Pays people to write praises for him.
did johari low pay you to write this bullshit comment?
This man is responsible for the financial plight of so many people. I can’t believe the authorities have never investigated him for his fraudulent activities. It’s sad.
Dr Siva is a renowned educator having lectured in a variety of law and non-law subjects since 1985 when he graduated with an honours law degree from the University of London (UK). Since then he has completed two doctoral dissertations with La Jolla University (USA). He is generally regarded as a common law expert and is one of the leading law and management lecturers in the country with a proven expertise and track record of excellence over the past 23 years.
Dr Siva is known for his highly thought provoking and interesting lectures. He has taught on many programs and is a versatile and knowledgeable academic. His forte is law, management and leadership, having taught extensively on the LLB degree program of the University of London for more than 23 years. Some of the areas he has professed an interest in are:
Jurispridence and The Legal Environment
Corporate law and corporate governance
International Commercial Law and Practice
Collateralization and Principles of Credit / Documentary Credits
Leadership and Paradigm Shifting
Strategic management and architecture / change management
Entrepreneurship
Managing for creativity and innovation
Communication and public speaking
This rubbish review is done by none other than Rockwills group, desperate to cast aspersions on a legitimate businessman and respected senior lawyer. No evidence is provided, just baseless allegations
I see the marketing team of UBB Amanah Berhad has started posting fake 5 star reviews here too. Nothing said in the above review is a lie. You can look up everything yourself. The only person who is lying is you.
My dad had invested in UBB Amanah Opportunity Trust. They promised him returns on his investment but didn’t tell him that they will take more fees than the returns.
He got less money than what he invested.
The agent told him that the returns depend on market so they cannot do anything.
Now I know where that money went.
It went into the pockets of Dr Siva Ananthan.
Once I was listening to Dr. Siva Ananthan which showed him as a learned man but he was indulging in these scams and that’s not something I could have expected.
where is the proof your dad invested with Ubb?
and what has your dad investing with Ubb got to do with Dr Siva? are you retarded or just don’t know any logic?
did johari low pay you to write this bullshit comment? provide evidence. where is the trust deed? do you have it? if not, you’re just full of crap
Dr Siva Ananthan needs to be thrown in jail. He is a greedy businessman who uses corrupt means to steal money from common people.
bla bla bla. you must be paid by some idiot to write this bullshit comment lol