The Commissioner of Charities (COC) has ordered Global Virtue, a business consulting and marketing communications firm, to stop conducting fund-raising appeals from Thursday.

The COC's office had received complaints about teenagers representing the company to solicit donations or sell vouchers in public purportedly for charitable causes. The company claimed, including on its website, to be contributing part of its sale proceeds to non-profit and charitable organisations as part of its corporate social responsibility programme.

But investigations showed that the firm had "no proper control over the vouchers or sale proceeds and no proper accounting records were maintained". The COC concluded that the fund-raising appeals were "improperly administered".

The prohibition order was issued to the company, its directors Muhammad Zuhairi Abdullah and Mohammad Rudi Muhammad Suffian, and its advisor Jeffri Pawel.