What In The Devil’s Going On In Tasmania? |
- What In The Devil’s Going On In Tasmania?
- Get It Right Mr Obama!
- US News Covers Taib Money-Snatching
- Musa Pays Off Chia’s Dad With RM67million Deal – EXCLUSIVE
- Unanimous Decision To Adopt PR’s 20% Policy On Oil!
- ‘Philanthropist’ Jho Low Hits Texas With $50 Millon Dollar Donation!
| What In The Devil’s Going On In Tasmania? Posted: 14 May 2014 08:03 AM PDT   Ta Ann CEO cum wine entrepreneur – Evan Rolley The Australian Government has just given a foreign-owned company yet another in a series of huge subsidies to cut down the Tasmanian forest. Sarawak-based Ta Ann has received a $7.5million hand-out, making almost $45million in total over the past 7 years, even though the Malaysian company can't seem to turn a profit on the business. So, what is the next thing we see? Well, the next thing we see is $136,000 dollars of the Ta Ann budget disappearing into a lump-sum purchase of home grown wine, produced by Ta Ann's own local Chief Executive – one Evan Rolley, formerly of the Tasmanian Forestry Department! The Muslim Chairman and majority shareholder of Ta Ann, Taib's cousin and nominee Hamed Sepawi, was recently happy to be photographed glugging down the plonk, or something similar (see above) in the company of Japanese customers. According to local reports, Ta Ann purchased an estimated 300 cases of their Chief Executive's own wine at $35 a bottle. Since Evan normally markets his 'Heriots Point' wines at around $25 a bottle, it was clearly a pretty fantastic coup to get the publicly subsidised Ta Ann to buy 300 cases from himself not at a discount for such a large order, but apparently at a major premium!  Evan's wine list The matter represents a dual show of hypocrisy and blatant conflict of interest, which ought to bring Malaysia's Sharia authorities down on Sepawi and Australia's public auditors down on Rolley. But, whereas elsewhere in the democratic world such matters would normally cause uproar and resignations by sunset, in Tasmania people apparently just sigh. Tasmania – part of the free world or heading the way of corrupted Sarawak?  Old guy, young wife (nominee chief minister in the background) – Sarawak's Governor and potentate, Abdul Taib Mahmud. The Australian government has continued to shell out money on Ta Ann ever since it paid the company to establish its first mill in 2007. This is despite the fact that the company's owners have billions of their own money to invest, if they cared to do so. However, Taib (who is the actual controller of his cousin's enterprises) has always been clear that he prefers to make third parties (like banks or in this case a stupid public authority) shoulder the burden of the investments, which he can then profit from. And the real reason for the Tasmanian operation has always primarily been to enable Ta Ann to disguise the bulk of its timber, plundered from the rainforests of Sarawak, as 'eco-wood' with Australian certification on the label. Malaysia's timber mafia corrupts its targets So, how come the Australians are being such mugs, supporting this 'loss-making' venture that is ripping out Tasmania's own heritage forests as well? It comes down to politics rather than economics, of course.  Tasmania forest destruction The construction of a new mill to chew up virgin forest areas (rights which were incidentally negotiated for Ta Ann by Rolley when he was still running the state's Forest Department back in 2007) is designed to provide 120 jobs – although Ta Ann has a record of promising more jobs than it provides. Conversely, previous handouts by the Labour government were justified on the basis that through supporting Ta Ann, the company so favoured by chainsaw enthusiasts, like Huon MP Paul Harriss and ex-opposition leader Bryan Green, it might be possible to reach a compromise and enact a Forest Agreement to at least protect a segment of the last remaining wilderness on the island. This was the approach supported by some influential green groups, including the Wilderness Socity.  Paul Harriss (right) key middle-man for Ta Ann and Taib's side-kick Awang Tengah in Sarawak But, of course, far from honouring the Forest Agreement, the Tasmanian logging dinosaurs have now snatched the opportunity of a change of government to ditch it. Paul Harriss, who now glories in the title of Resources Minister, plans to get the reversal pushed through the State Parliament in the coming few days. It has made fools of the negotiators from the Wilderness Society and others, who thought they could 'engage' with Ta Ann and its political backers, in order to cap logging in the state. There are plenty who can say they told them so. The move should lose Tasmania hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation for agreeing to protect a natural forest area of some 500,000 hectares, but Harriss is set on 'reviving the logging industry' instead – and all in favour of one company, Ta Ann. This is the same Paul Harriss, who has been flown out on several jamborees to Sarawak at Ta Ann's expense and worked closely with the company from the very start of its involvement in the state. Harriss has loudly asserted that the Sarawak natives, who have endured the destruction of their lands through logging and oil palm plantations, are benefitting from 'sustainable development". Indeed, he saw fit to gush knowingly about the benefits of Ta Ann and Hamed Sepawi's methods in Sarawak, when he agreed to provide a forward for Ta Ann's corporate history, trading under his Membership of the Parliament of Tasmania:
Sarawak's native communities profoundly disagree with him – as well over 300 land rights cases against the Sarawak State Government testify. The fact that all Sepawi's vast concessions were corruptly acquired, thanks to his status as the cousin and key nominee for the Governor, the billionaire kleptocrat Taib Mahmud, has also been glaringly overlooked by the Tasmanian MP. Mr Harriss might care to view this video showing just one example of the treatment meted out to villagers, whose long-established homes were in the way of one of plantations that Mr Sepawi 1/3 owns on behalf of his cousin Taib Mahmud. Is this sustainable development?  Flattened by Sepawi's bulldozers – the village of Rumah Sendok in Sarawak, where over 300 native land rights cases are pending against the state government's land grabs, which have been found illegal by Malaysia's Federal Courts in numerous judgements. Bringing back logging to Tasmania The Malaysian timber interests will be eagerly supporting Harriss's plan to bring back logging to Tasmania. After all, cultivating local politicians and key officials to gain blanket concessions is exactly how the Malaysian timber mafia operates from the Amazon through the Congo to South East Asia.  Native forest dwellers in Sarawak protesting at the logging and destruction of their lands and rivers Just last year Mr Hamed Sepawi and his company Atlantic Resources were forcefully ejected from Liberia by Presidential decree for illegally acquiring, through corruption and bribery, concessions for around 1/4 of the forest area of this largest remaining stretch of the Congo. This is a mafia which is fuelled by huge, billion dollar profits made from the rampant and illegal destruction of Borneo – profits which have all been funnelled into a handful of politically connected families, especially Mr Sepawi's. It is certainly a dazzling source of income for those individuals caught up in the spider's web that Taib is now weaving in Tasmania. Hydro-Tasmania and state government employees have found lucrative opportunities in Sarawak's controversial dam-building programme, for example, and for some in the forestry sector Taib's billions represent an opportunity to make real money at a time when profits are hard to come by in this sunset industry. But, are these the sort of profits Tasmania really wants to be funded by? And do they want to do business with these sorts of people? Liberia didn't! Voters who are backing this hand-out of Tasmania's rich resource to Sarawak's timber mafia should certainly be under no illusions. The vast bulk of the profit that will be made out of exploiting their timber heritage in this way (and from their tax money in public subsidies) will go to Taib and his cronies, not the local community. Are Tasmanians happy about that? Because it certainly makes them look like just another bunch of third world victims – like the natives of Sarawak and Papua, the Congo and South America, whom Taib's mafia are also exploiting by subverting the local politicians.  Then Premier Paul Lennon and Rolley (in his previous position as CEO of Forestry Tasmania) working to bring Ta Ann to Tasmania, committee hearing in 2006 Dirty money – don't care?  How Hamed's cousin Taib's plantation policies have affected Sarawak's jungle. Hamed is a top concession-holder. Despite the ample evidence of Ta Ann's tainted connections, a key coterie of local politicians, who include Paul Lennon, Paul Harriss, Simon Crean (brother of Hydro-Tasmania boss David Crean) and Bryan Green, have championed the company consistently for years. It begs the question is there any source of money that Paul Harriss and his lobby would not consider accepting into the logging industry? Put another way, is there any crime from which they would consider the proceeds as an illegitimate source of funding? Because, Hamed Sepawi's money and that of Ta Ann has come from political corruption and abuse of power on an almost unparalleled scale.  Protesting against dam-building programme assisted by Hydro-Tasmania The plunder of Sarawak's timber and natural resources has come at the cost of the major abuse and exploitation of the indigenous people and their rights; the appalling destruction of the Borneo Jungle and is driving climate change, which will affect us all. This is well-documented and widely known and has been loudly and often repeated, not only on this site but by the world's top news organisations and by all credible experts on the region. Taib is being investigated for his on-going pattern of corruption and exploitation by Malaysia's own Anti-Corruption Commission – in a highly corrupt country that is saying something! So, does this not matter to Mr Harris and his pro-Ta Ann enthusiasts – have they no scruples when it comes to whom they introduce to Tasmania? Corruption and lies Supporters of Ta Ann should also be wary of the contaminating nature of corrupt practices. There have been some very unsavoury aspects to the company's links with its political allies in Tasmania so far. For example, when Hamed Sepawi himself publicly thanked two of his key political supporters for his publicly subsidised entry into Tasmania back in 2006, former Premier John Lennon and Forest Minister Bryan Green, he coyly pointed out that he had placed his two veneer factories in each of their two constituencies!  Rolley in his updated position as Ta Ann Tasmania's CEO on standby as Sepawi announces yet another government subsidy He then progressed in that same speech to thanking Evan Rolley, who at that time was the Director of Forests and could not have been more helpful in smoothing Ta Ann's path into obtaining all it needed from the agreement. Indeed he named Evan, 'Captain Rolley' for his pains:
Small wonder that the 'Captain' was soon spinning through the 'revolving door' from representing the interests of the public to becoming the head of Ta Ann's operations instead! The co-opting of key politicians and officials is exactly how the Malaysian timber mafia operates in third world countries, so is that the direction that Tasmania is heading as it clings on so determinedly to its sunset logging industry? Plantation and re-growth wood? Evan Rolley has moreover been caught out on a straight mistruth in his championing of Ta Ann's entry into Tasmania. At the time of their original licensing, in which he played a such key role, Rolley could not have been more clear in assuring the public that this company would not be destroying natural, primary forests:
From this repeated assurance back in 2006 ordinary folk (including committee members) would naturally assume that Ta Ann would only be using plantation wood and trees from re-grown areas of forest in the state - and had rejected fears they would destroy natural forests.  Plantation and re-growth 'eco-wood'? Yes, according to Rolley – only younger trees from this intact native forest were used by Ta Ann – the rest was slashed and burnt. However, whenever environmental campaigners and reporters subsequently pointed out that Mr Rolley's negotiated agreement with Ta Ann at this time has actually permitted the company to access wood from huge areas of intact natural forests, the now Chief Executive of the company has cried libel! It turns out that 'plantation and re-growth wood' in Mr Rolley's expert jargon actually means smaller and younger trees (of the size suitable for Ta Ann's mills) within primary forests – not more expensive plantation wood which businesses all over the island might have been hoping and expecting to market to the Ta Ann mills. Rolley and his political backers have raged at all critics of his dodgy definition of 'eco-wood', even though in order to access this 're-growth' material, the entire surrounding natural forest is being flattened and then burnt – all the "old growth" bigger trees (not suitable for the Ta Ann factory) included. Put simply there is nothing 'eco' about Ta Ann's wood, either that which is sourced from Tasmania or from Sarawak. Those who have rushed to reassure the company's Japanese customers otherwise are contaminating themselves through their association with this illegitimate and misleading enterprise. Time to re-think?  'Eco-wood'? – Hamed has benefitted from vast timber concessions and plantations granted by his cousin the Chief Minister in Sarawak Tasmanians need to step back from their painful battle over the demise of a sunset industry in their state and consider the wider picture of getting involved with Ta Ann. Australia is one country that has apologised to native peoples for injustices of the past. Some of the worst of those injustices took place in Tasmania. Present day Tasmanians should bear no guilt for those past actions. However, if such apologies are to look half genuine, the state should take very good care not to associate itself with the present exploitation of the indigenous people of Sarawak and their resources or to court the investment of the profits of that blatant exploitation. By encouraging this association with Ta Ann and by courting Japanese customers to do likewise, Tasmania's present leadership is doing just that. Sign up to receive regular updates from Sarawak Report |
| Posted: 12 May 2014 12:55 PM PDT  This post is also available in: Iban, Malay  Obama's visit was exploited to the full by the minority government in KL. There is a common misconception amongst well-meaning westerners about why the jungle is being cut down, which the actual rainforest destroyers are pleased to preserve. These westerners imagine that the main driver of deforestation is pressing populations of local people, who have run out of habitat and need to tear down the trees to survive and find jobs. After all, It is so much easier to try and lecture 'ignorant natives' than to admit openly that the real cause of mass deforestation in places like Sarawak is corrupt politicians with access to major capital from institutions in the west, all greedily seeking vast profits from industrial scale, unsustainable logging. To the contrary it is the local people who want to KEEP the forest. The local people find their livelihood FROM the forest and these small populations could be very nicely sustained and developed by small-scale timber enterprises that would make them all comfortable from the profits. This is because the local populations are actually quite tiny and they live off the forest environment. Yet, this is what President Obama said last month when answering a question about how to stop logging in Malaysia:
But, Mr Obama and people like him need to understand that the local communities feed themselves from keeping the forests and not cutting them down. This was not done by local job-seekers looking for food. It was done by greedy politicians backed by western capital. It is when the forests are taken away that these communities find themselves under stress and duress, looking for new ways to sustain their lives. The people who are in fact pressing for the logging are not local communities, they are greedy international businessmen (quite a few of them American) backed by corrupted local politicians. These buccaneer adventurers are financed by major capital from western bankers, who pretend they don't realise what is going on. Local people do not get the profit and there are few jobs and employment opportunities of lasting worth. Sarawak has preferred to import even cheaper workers from over-populated regions of Indonesia. Campaigning to keep their forests not chop it down. Many of these have caused trouble in the local communities, even raping tribal women. There are even charities in the UK whose mission is to go and "educate" local people in Sarawak not to cut down their trees. What unbelievable ignorance! These do-gooders need educating themselves to realise that they should not be lecturing defenceless local people, who are trying to save their hunting grounds. Rather, they should show some proper guts and lecture rich and powerful local politicians and businesses and bankers – and people like President Obama, when they get something as important as this as wrong as this! Sign up to receive regular updates from Sarawak Report |
| US News Covers Taib Money-Snatching Posted: 12 May 2014 03:21 AM PDT  This post is also available in: Iban, Malay Another top international news organisation has endorsed and corroborated the information Sarawak Report has exposed about Taib Mahmud's extraordinary and illicit wealth. The major news service Bloomberg/Business Week has just brought out an extensive analysis of the divorce case of Taib's son Abu Bekir and what it tells us about his father's illegitimately acquired global assets. Meanwhile, Taib and his wife were still enjoying centre stage at this weekend's Sarawak social scene, in deference to his continuing meddling and control of the state.  Centre stage in Miri, while the new CM looks on… (Borneo Post)
Abdul Taib Mahmud, who ruled Sarawak, the Malaysian state on the island of Borneo, for more than three decades, retired in February with a billion-dollar family fortune. Some of the details of Taib's wealth surfaced during the divorce settlement battle between his elder son, Mahmud Abu Bekir Taib, and Mahmud's ex-wife, who is seeking more than $120 million in potentially one of the biggest separation payouts in Malaysia. The family has the largest stake in the state's biggest infrastructure company and other assets, according to corporate filings. Silver-haired with a goatee, the country's longest-serving politician oversaw state coffers for finance, planning and resources management in Malaysia's biggest state, source of about half the nation's crude oil output. He was given a "relatively free hand" to govern Sarawak because of his pivotal role in keeping Prime Minister Najib Razak's National Front coalition in power, said Andrew Aeria, an associate professor in the department of politics and international relations at Universiti Malaysia Sarawak. "The former chief minister was very powerful and influential, not only in Sarawak but in national politics on account of his experience, knowledge and longevity in office," said Aeria, who wrote the 2004 report, "Political Business in Sarawak: Productive or Lumpen Capitalist?" Billionaire FamilyTaib and his political allies won 25 seats in the general election in May last year, without which the coalition would have lost its majority in Malaysia's national parliament. He stepped down as chief minister on Feb. 28 and became Sarawak's governor, a largely ceremonial role, the following day. The 77-year-old, who has never appeared on an international wealth ranking, presides over a family whose fortune exceeds $1 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. He declined to comment on his net worth calculation and a request for an interview through Jameson Ahip Nawie, his press secretary. The e-mailed request for the interview listed the family's assets that the calculation was based on. It also asked for his comments about the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission's investigation into graft allegations against him. The government agency said in a written reply in March to members of parliament that the investigation on Taib is still ongoing. The former chief minister wasn't involved in decisions to award any project or land to his family members, according to findings made so far by the commission. Taib had denied the corruption allegations and has never been charged. Expedite InvestigationsThe commission said in 2013 it established a task force to expedite investigations into allegations of graft against Taib. Global Witness, a London-based anti-corruption campaign group partly funded by billionaire investor George Soros, released a video purporting to expose corrupt dealings in the state by his family members. "I think it's a bit a naughty of them," Taib told reporters in Kuching of Global Witness in a YouTube post by FZ.com, which runs a news website. "They are using their big power to blacken my name." Under Taib, Sarawak reduced its dependence on mining, agriculture and forestry by developing its manufacturing and renewable energy industries. The state accounts for about 10 percent of Malaysia's gross domestic product, according to government data. The legal tussle between his son and his ex-wife, Shahnaz Abdul Majid, has been playing out in court and the Malaysian media since their divorce in 2011. Sex DeprivedShahnaz, who has an MBA in finance, told the Shariah, or Islamic, High Court in Kuala Lumpur in September that she was deprived of sex for a decade and said Mahmud had wed an Australian and, later, a Russian without her knowledge during their 19-year marriage. Under Malaysian law, it's legal for Muslim men to marry as many as four wives. Mahmud is the deputy chairman of Kuala Lumpur-listed Cahya Mata Sarawak Bhd. (CMS), the largest infrastructure group in Sarawak. He personally controls assets valued at about $300 million, according to forensic accounting firm Ferrier Hodgson's Malaysian venture, which Shahnaz hired. He has stakes in 49 companies, according to documents presented by the accounting firm in court. The value of holdings held by Mahmud could be "substantially" higher because 18 of those companies are exempted from filing their annual financial statements to regulators and couldn't be valued, Andrew Heng, a partner at Ferrier Hodgson's Malaysian office, told the court on Jan. 22. Cahya MataHeng was cross-examined by Mahmud's lawyer on April 14 and said his report was prepared without bias or external influence, the Malaysian Star reported. Mahmud's father controls 42 percent of Cahya Mata Sarawak through the family holding company, Majaharta Sdn, and under the names of his children and late wife, Lejla Taib, according to stock exchange filings. The family became the biggest shareholder in the company, which started as a state-owned cement manufacturer, through a series of acquisitions in the 1990s, transforming it into a conglomerate with interests that included a brokerage and a road construction business, according to Aeria's report. According to Shahnaz, Mahmud also may have stakes in 85 companies abroad that haven't been valued, her lawyer, Rafie Mohd Shafie, told the court. 85 Companies"The 85 foreign companies don't exist," Mahmud said in response to a Bloomberg News query about the valuation of his assets by his ex-wife's accountant, as he walked out of the courtroom on Jan. 22, accompanied by a bodyguard. "I don't know anyone who has 85 companies. Do you know anyone who has 85 companies?" Mahmud didn't respond to e-mailed questions about family's wealth and the valuation of his assets listed in the divorce settlement court hearings. His father entered politics at age 27, after graduating from the University of Adelaide in Australia with a law degree in 1960 through a scholarship. The former chief minister belongs to the Melanau group, one of about 27 different ethnic groups in Sarawak. He held various ministerial positions in Sarawak and Malaysia before taking over in 1981 as the chief minister from his uncle, Abdul Rahman Ya'kub. He was diagnosed with early-stage colon cancer and underwent surgery in 2006, Bernama reported. His Polish-born wife died of cancer in 2009. More than a year later, he married Syrian-born Ragad Kurdi Taib, 46 years his junior, the state news agency said. Sarawak CableHis son, Mahmud, is the chairman and biggest shareholder of Sarawak Cable Bhd. (SRCB), a power cable and wire maker, which won transmission line projects from state-owned Sarawak Energy last year. Sarawak Cable shares were unchanged as of 3:02 p.m. in Kuala Lumpur trading, while Cahya Mata Sarawak rose 1.5 percent to 9.76 ringgit, set for the highest in almost two weeks. The governor's children have stakes in companies that own more than 36,000 hectares of oil palm land worth about $300 million, according to company and court filings. They also own the Hilton Adelaide hotel through Sitehost Pty, which is owned by the family, according to filings with the Australian Securities & Investments Commission. In Sarawak, the family has interests in the Miri Marriott Resort & Spa, which overlooks the South China Sea, and another hotel near a Unesco World Heritage site known for its caves, according to Malaysian company filings. U.S. BuildingsOther holdings include real estate in the U.S. and Canada that are valued at almost $300 million, based on recent transactions and average rents in the areas provided by property consultants. Taib's mansion, which overlooks the Sarawak River, is outfitted with gilt-edged Italian furniture and its own jetty, according to documents Shahnaz's lawyer presented in court. A ring with a walnut-sized gem surrounded by diamonds adorns one of his fingers and he is chauffeured around in a Rolls-Royce, according to photographs at public events. The family controls the Abraham Lincoln Building in Seattle through Washington-based Wallysons Inc., according to the Washington Secretary of State Corporations Division's website. Taib's son is the chairman of Wallysons while his son-in-law is the president, secretary and treasurer, according to the website. The building is home to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Seattle division headquarters, according to the address on the FBI's website. 'Benefited Tremendously'Sarawak accounts for half of the country's crude oil output and is the sole provider of liquefied natural gas, underscoring its importance to the federal government, Standard & Poor's said in a report in December. "His longevity in an environment of political stability has given him a tight rein over the state's key growth drivers," Song Seng Wun, an economist at CIMB Group Holdings Bhd., said in a phone interview from Singapore. "That has benefited the state coffer, and the private sector, including the businesses run by his family. They have benefited tremendously from the growth opportunity." Sign up to receive regular updates from Sarawak Report |
| Musa Pays Off Chia’s Dad With RM67million Deal – EXCLUSIVE Posted: 11 May 2014 11:39 AM PDT  This post is also available in: Iban, Malay  Chia Nyet Min – father of Michael Chia, now facing jail sentence for demanding kickbacks, he claimed were on behalf of Musa and BN Sabah's Chief Minister Musa Aman has quietly reached a judicial settlement with the father of the scandal torn businessman Michael Chia, by granting him major logging concessions and a barging monopoly, together worth a staggering RM67,300,407. Chia, who has been exposed for running a series of secret bank accounts which benefitted Musa's family, was sentenced to jail a few days after the deal went through on February 6th, over separate fraud charges. The grants are all at the expense of the public purse and represent the settlement of a claim by the father, Chia Nyet Min, against Musa Aman in his capacity as Chairman and former Chief Executive of Yayasan Sabah. Aman had granted him highly criticised barging monopolies, which the state company Sabah Berjaya Sdn Bhd then attempted to break in favour of a fairer and more efficient system for transporting the logs. It would appear that the settlement, which was officiated by a judge before the case came to trial, represents a disastrous cave-in by the Yayasan's subsidiary, thanks to the questionable monopoly deal, which had been negotiated by Musa with this business crony of many years standing. "No business association whatsoever" Back in 2012 Musa had publicly denied any association at all with Michael Chia, who had once represented himself as the key gatekeeper to the Chief Minister for logging concessions and called himself Musa's 'adopted son' in deference to the close relationship between Musa and his own father Chia Nyet Min.
However, Sarawak Report exposed Chia as the nominee behind a network of bank accounts, which processed millions of dollars of timber kickbacks, which then found their way to Musa's own Swiss bank accounts and into payments for own his sons in Australia.  No business association whatsoever – Musa and Chia in happier times When the issue could no longer be denied, given the weight of the evidence, Musa's BN bosses attempted to then justify the graft by claiming that the payments were for party purposes and not personal gain! How this legitimised illegal bribes and kickbacks for logging concessions has yet to be explained by the ruling coalition, since it is every bit as illegal to accept bribes for the benefit of a political party as it is to accept bribes as an individual.  Payment by timber tycoons to Chia's front company Zenique Investments were marked as being Deposits for logging concessions! Why was such money not going into the public finances? Graft and monopolies that have destroyed Malaysia's jungle state Records obtained by Sarawak Report show that Musa had a long association with Chia Nyet Min, granting his company Kini Abadi Sdn Bhd major lucrative barging monopolies in 1997, while he was Chief Executive of Yayasan Sabah. There was no benefit to such monopolies to anyone besides Chia and they created great annoyance to other timber companies who wanted to use cheaper and more efficient methods of transporting their logs.  The rates charged by Chia's monopoly for barging logs It was because of complaints over the monopoly that Sabah Berjaya started to allow rival timber barons to use other forms of transport and this sparked the law case by Kini Abadi against Sabah Berjaya. Chia senior originally sued for RM84million, causing general astonishment given the well documented close relations between the Chia family and Musa. Many wondered if this was a genuine falling out between the politician and his key crony, or just another way of extracting public money for Aman's purposes, which appear to include subsidising his party?  Yayasan Sabah's concessions and monopolies offered to Michael Chia and his Dad, Chia Nyet Min (MACC Document) – Musa was originally Chief Executive and is now Chairman (as well as Chief Minister of Sabah)  Barging out a fallen rainforest Chia's claim against Sabah Berjaya/ Yayasan Sabah was that the loss of the monopoly, which had been renewed for another 5 years in 2006 was worth a staggering RM84million. At first Sabah Berjaya vigorously defended the action, declaring that the foundation was under no obligation to maintain the monopoly, because the revised contract made clear that the whole arrangement was at the discretion of the state owned foundation. The defence case also said that Kini Abadi had not fulfilled its side of the contract, because logs were being transported too slowly and the arrangement allowed for other contractors to also be offered the same job:  Brave words – but the defendant (Yayasan Sabah/ Sabah Berjaya) climbed down and paid up RM 64million! Total climb down! However, our exclusive copy of the final settlement before the Judicial Commissioner in Sandakan, Dato Douglas Cristo Primus Sikayun, in February makes it clear that the state body eventually engaged in a humiliating climb down, which allows the Chia family to retain their lucrative stranglehold on the barging of logs and also gives them exclusive rights to chop down and clear another huge area of forest in the state! The area conceded is nearly 4,000 hectares:  Compensation in the form of more timber concessions. Furthermore, the settlement also agrees to allow Chia's company to apply to extend the permitted cutting rates beyond the normal diameters allowed and to retain the barging monopoly. There is even an agreement for a rapid meeting to discuss putting up the monopoly barging rates enjoyed by Chia and to implement the new rates within a week! The total value of all these climb-downs and concessions is stated in the settlement as being worth RM67million to Michael Chia's doubtless very contented father. Not bad for someone with "no business connections whatsoever" with the Chief Minister and Chairman of Yayasan Sabah!  Profit to Mr Chia that could have gone to the state under a proper competitive tender for the contract. Fall guy? What a pity for Sabah that its forests are to be further trashed to feed the greed of this family who have been exposed in court as utterly corrupted.  Fall guy? Chia with Musa's lawyer, Christopher Barnes, to whom much of the money for logging concessions was eventually sent. After all, Michael himself was sentenced to caning and a jail sentence just days after this settlement was reached in February. His crime in this instance was to cheat a fellow timber tycoon into believing that he was the 'fixer', who could organise a concession from Yayasan Sabah, because as his status as the middleman for Musa himself. Chia had told Argus Hassan that he needed to pay a political donation and a fat commission on top. The court found that this was all untrue and that Chia was acting merely for himself. How surprising, when everyone in the business recognised that Chia was the right hand man for Musa and after the BN hierachy have even admitted Chia was indeed handling 'donations' to the party. RM64million is perhaps not a bad recompense for being the fall guy in this case! [To review the case of Musa Aman and his 'middleman' Chia, see Sarawak Report's archive and Spotlight section]. Sign up to receive regular updates from Sarawak Report |
| Unanimous Decision To Adopt PR’s 20% Policy On Oil! Posted: 07 May 2014 03:05 AM PDT  This post is also available in: Iban, Malay  The wealth that went to Malaysia as part of Taib's deal to get dictatorial grip over the rest of Sarawak's resources. This has to be the first sign that Taib Mahmud is losing his grip! No wonder he opened the State Assembly this week with talk about needing "heightened security" against "undesirable elements". But these oil revenue rebels are from his own party and they are UNANIMOUS in ditching his unfair policies on Sarawak's oil royalty. What's more they are completely right. Well, in fact they should be demanding considerably more of the benefits of Sarawak's oil revenues to be ploughed into the long-neglectied state. Hospitals and schools and roads have been endlessly promised and never built. But 20% is a start. After all, it must be quite shaming to be a BN Assemblyman, thinking forward to the next state election and having to go around the longhouses making the same old broken promises about 'development', when everyone knows the 10 ringgit bribe is really all any of them will get under BN. Taib betrayed Sarawak on oil (and much besides)  Taib in his 'democratic' apparel for the pageant State Assembly, which functions exactly 16 days a year, including 4 days of opening and closing ceremonies! It was Taib who signed away Sarawak's oil to curry favour with the Federal Government back in the 70′s when he was Minister of Primary Resources in KL. To begin with he had been willing to hand over 100% of Sarawak's valuable resource, since he had his personal eye on the valuable timber assets of the state to make his own fortune. But, his uncle, the then chief minister was furious at the give away and Taib re-negotiated to give Sarawak a miserable 5%. The whole story has been related in a new book by Dr Lukas Straumann, the Director of the Swiss NGO BMF, all about Taib's betrayal of his people and it will be available soon in English. We provide an exclusive and highly relevant excerpt:
This has been the unfair and unequal colonial-style arrangement that Sarawak has suffered under ever since, thanks to the selfish machinations of the now Governor. The arrangement suited Taib Mahmud himself just fine, because his betrayal of his people put him in very good favour with the UMNO hierachy in KL and they were happy to promote his cause to become CM to succeed his uncle. What's more, in return for surrendering Sarawak's oil Taib had a tacit agreement from KL that the central politicians would leave him alone to do what he liked with Sarawak's timber, lands and valuable coal and mineral resources. That was enough to make him very rich indeed and now that oil has been found on land in Sarawak it cannot be a surprise that a familiar Taib crony (Tiong Hiew King) is the one to have been handed the concession, which will once again by-pass most of the profit from the public benefit – we can all be sure of that. 20% is not enough This is a situation that all Sarawak's representatives are aware of and they, like Taib's uncle, have of course been angry all these past decades, while saying nothing to their all-powerful boss. Now they have clearly seen their chance and adopted the opposition PR party's compromise suggestion that the revenue be raised to 20%. It is a stunning defiance of the once all-powerful CM and it must have been agreed with the tacit compliance of his successor Adenan Satem. Such disobedience all round – no wonder Taib is calling for extra troops on the borders and security in open places! So, where does this leave the BN government, which depends on Sarawak's seats to stay in power as much as it depends on its oil resources, at a time when the public finances are in a pretty pickle? Najib will be most reluctant to give up money from KL's coffers. On the other hand…. only 20%? Why is the division not the other way around, why is it not 20% for West Malaysia and the Federal Government and 80% to Sarawak? The opposition parties have actually short-changed Sarawak with their modest and easy request and Najib would be a fool not to snatch the opportunity of making such a small concession. Invisible accounts Of course, this is all in fact a make-believe debate, in the same way that Sarawak is a make-believe democracy. Because, due to the lack of government transparency, no one has any idea what the real figures actually are for oil extraction or budgets. Instead of being laid before Parliament, as is only right and proper, in Malaysia the Petronas accounts are guarded as a close secret to be known only by the Prime Minister/Finance Minister, Najib Razak! How can you extract 20% from a secret number? Without basic checks and balances and without even the most basic accountability, therefore, this whole debate is merely about concepts and principles. The reality is something altogether different and even if money was released it would never be spent on the people, as it should be, under the present governing arrangements. It would just be stolen by corrupt politicians like all the rest of Sarawak's resources have been for the past 50 years. Sign up to receive regular updates from Sarawak Report |
| ‘Philanthropist’ Jho Low Hits Texas With $50 Millon Dollar Donation! Posted: 05 May 2014 11:00 AM PDT   At the awards dinner, where he was nominated International Entrepreneur of the Year! Malaysians will be interested to know that just last month the Penang born pal of Rosmah Mansor and her son Riza Aziz, Jho Low, aged 32, was honoured in Houston for his philanthropic gift of a whopping US$50million (RM163million) towards cancer research at the University of Texas. In response, Houston's Asian Chamber of Commerce named him as the first recipient of their brand new award of International Entrepreneur of the Year at a glittering ceremony on April 11th. Many back home might think that RM163million might have gone a long way to assist in basic health care for Malaysia's poorer communities in places like Sarawak, where many rural clinics lack doctors.  Making a name for himself in Texas! Texas on the other hand is one of the richest places on earth, and the recipient of Low's philanthropy, the Anderson Medical Centre, describes itself as already having "unparalleled resources and capabilities". Therefore, Sarawak Report investigated to see whether there might be a business connection to Mr Low's philanthropy and learnt that in November of last year Jho Low spent 2.3 billion dollars in buying out the company Coastal Energy from the jailed Houston oilman Oscar Wyatt. His partners in the deal were the same Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund, IPIC, with whom he engaged in a prolonged and serious attempt to buy out a controlling share of the company Coroin and its stake in London's Maybourne Hotel Group in 2011. Sarawak Report has also forced Low to concede that there was another interested party involved, backing his company Wynton in that deal, namely 1MDB, Malaysia's sovereign wealth fund, which he has spent the last three years claiming he has done no business with. Local Texas newspaper coverage introduced the buyers:
 Malaysian investor, who always claims his sovereign wealth supporters are only from Abu Dhabi and do not include his close friends who run Malaysia's 1MDB  Septuagenarian southern 'style icon' Lynn Wyatt, bailed out by Jho Low's half billion purchase of her husband's shares in Coastal Making a name in oil-rich Texas? In Texas Low was primarily credited with restoring the fortunes of one of its favourite socialites and local Southern style icon Lynn Wyatt, Oscar's wife. Wyatt's stake in the deal amounted to around $500million dollars' worth of shares in Coastal, which were bought at a 28% premium rate above the price of the previous day's close in November of last year. Now that Low has extended his charity to "numerous contributions" in the town as well, according to the newspapers, his status in Houston seems as assured as it is in Hollywood, where it has been noted he received a special credit at the end of the film Wolf of Wall Street and he has bankrolled numerous party events. But, Malaysians remain mystified as to the sources of all this capital behind the youthful entrepreneur's extravagant buy-outs and hand outs. Denials Today Jho Low issued a rare statement and a series of denials with regard to Sarawak Report's earlier exposes revealing that his separate bids for the Maybourne Hotel Group were backed by One Malaysia Development Berhad (1MBD), the sovereign wealth fund set up by his pal Riza's Dad, the PM Najib Razak. In his statement the youthful tycoon acknowledged his role as the leader of the hotel bid, as stated by a UK judge David Richards in a detailed judgement on the matter in a related court case. However, Low attempted to down-play the whole affair as an "early stage investment opportunity" that went nowhere. He also implied that 1MDB was involved merely as "one of the several investors invited … to evaluate this early-stage investment opportunity in 2010/2011″ and repeated an earlier claim that he has never "received any compensation or patronage directly from any entity wholly owned by the Malaysian government".
Sarawak Report suggests that these denials conflict with the facts, which are now in the public domain. Because, according to the widespread coverage of the time, now researched by Sarawak Report, 1MDB did not merely provide "preliminary letters of intent", it forked out €49.1million to buy up debt that secured a stake in the business Mr Low was trying to acquire. This is how Justice David Richards explained the manoeuvre in his judgement, which he goes on to conclude showed not just a 'preliminary intent', or 'early-stage opportunity' but what he calls a "serious interest in the company" by Jho Low's own company Wynton.  The money to buy out €49.1million in debt came from 1MDB according to reports What Sarawak Report has now established is that the purchase, through an associated company called JQ2, was financed, according to newspaper reports by 1MDB Malaysia (see below). Furthermore, as the judgement also makes clear (above) when Jho Low suggested sharing the purchase with the UK entrepreneurs the Barclay brothers, he was talking about a three way split with Aabar Investments (another subsidiary of IPIC) and Wynton.  The purchaser was 1MDB – so no benefit to Jho Low? We therefore suggest that it is plain and obvious that 1MDB was the key investor behind Wynton, because it makes little sense for the Malaysian sovereign wealth fund to have forked out €49.1million and written letters backing the Wynton bid, if it was not an interested party in this deal. This begs a question of all Jho Low's denials that he has ever profited from dealings with 1MDB. Because, as the private equity coordinator of the deal he was evidently expecting to profit and money was paid out by the fund. Likewise, why has 1MDB's boss insisted that Jho Low had "zero" involvement with the fund, when evidently this was not the case? In his statements of denial over the past 24 hours Jho Low did not once refer to this huge recorded pay out by 1MDB to the Irish asset management agency Nama in clear support of his Maybourne Hotel Group bid. Sarawak Report requests that it is time he includes an explanation for this matter. Jho Low's philanthropy  Philanthropy not profit? Both Jho Low and his party pal Riza Aziz refer to themselves as philanthropists, a title generally bestowed (by others) on the very rich, when they distribute significant sums of their personal wealth to the less well off in need. Riza Aziz has published no evidence of such donations nor, indeed, has he been able to explain his position of such wealth. As for Jho Low, he explains in his Jynwell Capital website that he aims "to promote, encourage and support the advancement of education and the relief of poverty globally". However, no examples of his projects are provided in the website. Low's 'Linked In' website elaborates that his foundation is committed to "accelerating advances in public health, environmental & wildlife conservation and education in every corner of the world". So, we have heard about Texas. How about Sarawak, Malaysia, the place on the globe where wildlife is most threatened and where public health and education are shockingly neglected in a oil rich, coal rich, timber rich, gold rich, palm oil rich state?  More details please? Sign up to receive regular updates from Sarawak Report |
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