Wolf Of Wall Street Backer’s Business Links With 1MDB And Jho Low!

---

• Wolf Of Wall Street Backer’s Business Links With 1MDB And Jho Low!
• How Najib Razak Planned To Use The Queen Of England – EXCLUSIVE!
• Murum Dam Is “High Risk” – Official Report
• “Cascading Failure” – Catastrophic Warning On Murum Dam Was Kept Hidden! MAJOR EXCLUSIVE
• Second Senior Engineer From Murum Dam Site Dies – EXCLUSIVE
• Murum Manager Was Investigated By MACC Before Sudden Death EXCLUSIVE!

Wolf Of Wall Street Backer’s Business Links With 1MDB And Jho Low! Posted: 12 Aug 2014 09:42 AM PDT This post is also available in: Iban, Malay Riza and Joey from Red Granite plus a line up of stars – Leonardo di Caprio and Jamie Foxx After months of refusing to identify their backers, the film production company Red Granite Pictures has now named its main sponsor during an interview with the New York Times. He is the Abu Dhabi based Chief Executive of Aabar Investments, Mr Mohamed Ahmed Badawy Al-Husseiny. Aabar is a fund known to have strong investment ties with Malaysia's 1MDB and also the Malaysian business tycoon Jho Low, whom it backed during a bid for the Claridige's hotel group in London Yet, Red Granite, which is owned by Najib Razak's step-son, Riza Aziz, had earlier threatened to sue Sarawak Report for querying if the hundreds of millions channelled into the company's various film projects could indeed be linked to Riza's Malaysian connections and his close party friend, Jho Low. In a legal letter to Sarawak Report in January Red Granite had stated that Red Granite had no finances "emanating from the country of Malaysia or Mr Low": "In fact, the budget of the Picture [Wolf of Wall Street] was financed through traditional sources of motion picture financing, including funds provided by three major financial institutions, tax credits, and foreign presales" [legal letter from Red Granite 2/1/14] Nevertheless, this new statement by Red Granite reveals very close business ties indeed with Malaysia, thanks to Aabar investments and it refers to Mr Mohamed Ahmed Badawy Al-Husseiny as the only major backer of the company.   In their interview with the New York Times reporter Michael Cieply, Riza Aziz and his partner Joey McFarland stated that Mr Al-Husseiny was investing in Red Granite in a private capacity, however, and not through the Aabar fund, of which he is the Chief Executive.   The duo further explained to the intrigued American news outfit that their previous silence and earlier confusion over Red Granite's funding (e.g. the contradictory reference to three major financial institutions) was owing to Mr Al-Husseiny's personal reluctance to be solicited by any other Hollywood producers! "They were finally free to speak, they said, because Red Granite's principal film investor, the Abu Dhabi-based businessman Mohamed Ahmed Badawy Al-Husseiny, had agreed to be publicly identified after insisting for years on silence about his involvement. Mr. Al-Husseiny, who is the chief executive of Abu Dhabi's government-owned Aabar Investments, previously said that he did not want to be solicited by other producers" [New York Times] Why Red Granite? These explanations provide as many questions as answers, due to Riza Aziz's Malaysian connections and his status as a politically exposed person. After all, why has Mr Al-Husseiny shown so willing to invest in this rookie in the film business, while refusing to get involved with more established Hollywood companies? Aziz explains that he met Mr Husseiny while working at HSBC during a two year period in London prior to 2008. At that stage he had not yet chucked in his banking job for Hollywood. Yet this chief executive appears to have been willing to risk hundreds of millions of his own personal money in launching Riza's brand new company, Red Granite Pictures. It is therefore clearly relevant that in his public role as Chief Executive of the Abu Dhabi state-owned company Aabar, Mr Al-Husseiny has been involved in billion ringgit deals with 1MDB, which is controlled by Riza's Dad. Sarawak Report has also separately established that Aabar has also been in business with Jho Low in a major London hotel bid that was also backed by the same sovereign wealth fund, 1MDB.  1MDB is supposed to be targeted at investing in development back in Malaysia. Aabar and 1MDB The 1MDB deals involving Aabar, which is a subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi state-owned investment arm International Petrolium Investment Company (IPIC), have raised considerable questions in Malaysia, not least following the publication of 1MDB's long delayed financial report for 2013, which was finally released in May of this year. As the respected business portal Kinibiz put it: "Not only is the fund's RM7-billion investment in the Cayman islands out of its control, but its RM877-million pre-tax profit for FY13 was merely paper gains as RM2.73 billion in property revaluation offset RM1.8 billion in actual losses. Impairment of goodwill is another cause for concern as far as 1MDB's estimations are concerned, said new auditors Deloitte. And not only did 1MDB overpay by RM1.2 billion for its power assets, but it was revealed that Abu Dhabi entity Aabar Investments and Ananda Krishnan-linked Tanjong have an option to take up a substantial part of 1MDB's power assets. These on top of 1MDB's strangely huge RM23-billion cash pile against debts of RM36 billion. Is 1MDB a disaster unfolding before our very eyes"  [Mkini Biz 1MDB: an unfolding disaster] This highly advantageous situation of Aabar Investments towards 1MDB (which is chaired by Riza's step-Dad, the Malaysian PM and Finance Minister Najib Raza) makes Riza's special relationship with its CEO relevant. Aabar and 1MDB did a major power deal, orchestrated by a Goldman Sachs team led by Tim Leissner and Robert Ng. Business portal The Edge notes Leissner is close to Riza's pal Jho Low (above) After all, IPIC was cited as the co-guarrantor of a bond issue by 1MDB for the purchase of Tanjong power handled by Goldman Sachs in a closed deal, which Sarawak Report holds a copy of. Indeed, Goldman Sachs made an astonishing and unusual profit from this transaction, according to our earlier investigation. The leading figure for Goldman Sach's Asian bond business with 1MDB Robert Ng has since recently quit his post to set up his own business. However, as the financial press has pointed out, Ng had a reputation for high flying political connections and previously worked for Deustche Bank where he handled similar closed off-shore bond deals through Labuan for Taib Mahmud and SCORE. Ng and his close partner at Goldman Sachs, Tim Leissner (who remains with the bank) have also been publicly noted for their close ties with Riza's friend Jho Low. It is Low who is acknowledged for setting up the whole concept of 1MDB in the first place, beginning with its fore-runner the Terengganu sovereign wealth fund. Jho Low is a friend also of Riza's mum, Rosmah Mansour, who is Najib's wife.  Indeed just in the past week it has been reported that Jho Low linked up with Rosmah and the PM on their European holiday trip, which they embarked on straight after Najib's press conference in Amsterdam about the shooting down of the MAS airline over Ukraine. How the business portal The Edge recently linked Goldman's Tim Leissner, Robert Ng and Jho Low as the key players in 1MDB. Aabar investments' parent company IPIC was the co-guarantor in Goldman's bond issue for Tanjung Power. Jho Low connection – Red Granite admits the links to Jho Low In the New York Times article Aziz's Red Granite partner, the American Joey McFarland, also finally admits his connection to Global Talent Booking, a firm that hires out celebrities, including Paris Hilton, for events. McFarland also acknowledges that this was how he met Jho Low and that it was Jho Low who introduced him to Leonardo di Caprio, who was looking for funding for Wolf of Wall Street: "After graduating from the University of Louisville, Mr. McFarland worked briefly for Chrysler's finance arm in Cincinnati, then quit to focus on investments that included real estate and a restaurant. Another investment, Mr. McFarland said, was in a talent brokerage company that booked performers and others into events. That, he said, led to travel, which in turn led to an acquaintance with Jho Low, a jet-setting Malaysian investor who had been a friend to Mr. Aziz during their student years in London. Mr. Low, Mr. McFarland said, introduced him to Mr. Aziz. Somewhere along the way, Mr. Low introduced both to another acquaintance, Mr. DiCaprio, who proved willing to join forces if they could find a way to finance his favored projects."[New York Times] This is a completely different story to the one given to Sarawak Report in legal letters by Red Granite, in which he claimed it was libellous to say he had previously worked for a talent booking company/ party planner agency, because he had a long background in the film industry instead. In his updated version to the New York Times, McFarland has admitted that he was indeed an investor in a 'talent brokerage company'.  And he made no claims to any past history in the film industry, citing a background in an estate agency and a restaurant prior to that. Contrast this to McFarland's earlier threats to sue Sarawak Report for reporting the fact that  he worked for a talent booking company and that this was how he met Jho Low: "Completely false" – Red Granite's legal letter in January claims an extensive film background for McFarland and denies his talent booking experience. It was a different story in this week's New York Times! Note that in this legal letter in January McFarland claimed he had an extensive background in the film business – a claim which he no longer referred when speaking to the New York Times last week. So, it is relevant to point out that Jho Low also has connections to Aabar Investments, whose chief executive has now emerged as the main funder of the rookie film duo behind Red Granite Pictures, namely Riza Aziz and Joey McFarland. In a recent investigation Sarawak Report exposed how Low had dragged in 1MDB as a promised backer for his bid to buy out the London Claridge's Hotel chain for over a billion dollars.  1MDB even invested tens of millions of euros in purchasing debt in a move designed to leverage Jho Low's position in a rival bidding war. This is despite the fact that Jho Low and 1MDB have consistently denied any business connections. We can now further reveal that Low's company Wynton was also being backed in this deal by Aabar Investments, according to a judgement on the matter by the British judge Justice David Richards: Justice Richards referred several times to the joint bid by Jho Low and Aabar for Claridge's This link has been clarified by Jho Low himself in a recent statement responding to Sarawak Report's revelation that he had engaged in the attempted by-out with backing from 1MDB.  In the statement Jho Low acknowledged he was in business with Aabar Investments and 1MDB: "Mr. Low was a co-investor and led the coordinating efforts for the proposed bid for Maybourne Hotel Group (Claridge's, the Connaught and the Berkeley in London) along with Aabar Investments PJS (an Abu Dhabi Government controlled sovereign wealth fund entity).  1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) was one of the several investors invited by Aabar Investments PJS to evaluate this early-stage investment opportunity in 2010/2011. To facilitate the bid, some initial interested investors provided preliminary letters of intent in support of the bid." [Media Statement by Jho Low] Mohamed Ahmed Badawy Al-Husseiny, CEO of Aabar Investment – why has he so favoured Red Granite above other Hollywood producers? These facts, therefore, clearly establish the links between Red Granite's acknowledged major financier and Riza Aziz's party-loving friend Jho Low. It also establishes the links between Red Granite's source of finance and the Malaysian wealth fund 1MDB, which is supervised by Riza's step-father, the Malaysian PM Najib Razak. The previous denials by Red Granite have now been rectified in this respect and it is therefore unsurprising that the threats in two legal letters to sue Sarawak Report were never carried out. Given the nature of these links, a fuller explanation of the detail of Riza Aziz's dealings with Mr Al-Husseiny is surely now required in the interest of the Malaysian public, who are funding 1MDB? Sign up to receive regular updates from Sarawak Report

How Najib Razak Planned To Use The Queen Of England – EXCLUSIVE! Posted: 08 Aug 2014 12:42 AM PDT This post is also available in: Iban, Malay Malaysiakini reports the surprise announcement today Sarawak Report can provide the answer to the question which is perplexing Malaysians. Why did the Federal Court insist on suddenly scheduling their show trial for Anwar Ibrahim on Sept 8th and 9th, despite the fact that his lawyer would be away on medical leave until October? At first the court refused to alter the date in the face of protest, but eventually they did agree to give up on the plan as the position became untenable. We suggest these had been the chosen dates because Najib planned to drive his political opponent into an extended jail sentence the very day before he is due to be received by the Queen at Windsor Castle, for an event designed to promote him as a leading 'moderate Muslim'! This way, the Prime Minister most likely calculated that he could use the British Queen and Head of the Commonwealth to provide a seal of approval over the judicial persecution of his key political opponent and likewise his attack on homosexuality – after all Najib has chosen to charge Anwar on the grounds of sodomy. Islamic Fashion Festival! September 10th is a day that has been quietly put in Najib's diary as a date not to miss. After all, his wife Rosmah would never allow him to fail to attend her major annual charity function, which he has always dutifully shown up to at various locations around the world. Tickets for the event have already been sent out – Malaysian Tatler is even auctioning one for charity, starting price RM20,000! The somewhat bizarre event is designed to show how Islamic gear can still be, in Rosmah's own words, "sexy"! Given that the whole point of Islamic dress is surely to avoid being sexy these annual events have always promoted an air of confusion, with western models and designers roped in to join in to provide solutions. Still sexy – Rosmah poses at the UK Islamic Fashion Festival event in 2012 Rosmah sees her event as a way of promoting the Malaysian leadership in the west as moderately minded and a friendly ally against fundamentalism. At the same time she has successfully used it to promote her own social ambitions, targeting royalty and making sure to divert the proceeds of each event into their favourite charities. This tactic started with the buttering up of Prince Albert of Monaco in 2010, whose banks are believed to take care of a lot of Malaysian and Sarawak money, which fled Switzerland. Timber tycoons in Sarawak were obligingly pressured by Sarawak Chief Minister, Taib Mahmud, into funding the event on Rosmah's behalf and Rosmah was able to present Prince Albert with a €100,000 cheque for his Environment Foundation at the end of the evening! The fact that the Hii family, one of the worst desecrators of Sarawak's Borneo Jungle, had funded that cheque provided a piquant irony to those in the know. After Albert, Rosmah set her sights firmly on the British royal family and two recent consecutive Islamic Fashion Shows have been held amidst the bones of dinosaurs at London's Natural History Museum and hosted by the wife of Prince Edward, the former PR executive, Sophie Wessex. Dinosaur backdrop for Islamic clothes show…. Sophie is now a polished member of the Royal Family in the UK and has taken on the role of Global Ambassador for the Duke of Edinburgh's charity – The Duke of Edinburgh Award. The proceeds from the 2011/12 Islamic Fashion Shows went to that! Patron of the event – Kate Middleton So, come the 2014 event, it appears that Rosmah's persistence has paid off. After two years of having her husband's charity benefit from this odd event, the Queen appears to have relented and agreed that she should host the third UK Islamic Fashion Festival in four years at Windsor Castle herself! The date? September 10th as anyone of a host of invitees can confirm, since invitations went out just a few days ago! Organised by Sophie Wessex in benefit of the Duke of Edinburgh Awards The Duchess of Cambridge will act as patron to the event this time, according to Malaysian Tatler's information on the subject. This is doubtless a spin off from her visit last year to Malaysia, during which Rosmah gave her a necklace containing strings of south sea peals. Taib and the Hii family pose at Rosmah's 2010 Islamic show in Monaco – after all they coughed up the money! Clearly the Foreign Office is still focused on its new Malaysia drive to promote British sales and Malaysian investment, come what may and told her it would be a good idea. After all, BN political cronies personally pushed up property prices in Central London last year, when they re-located huge assets in advance of the GE13, becoming the capital's biggest house buyers. And it was the Malaysian Government-owned palm oil giant, Sime Darby (responsible for numerous environmental crimes) that bought over the Battersea Power Station development. Possibly, the Queen had envisaged that the event at Windsor might provide an opportunity for the British to show the sympathy and solidarity with Malaysians that they undoubtedly feel over the two recent airline disasters. But, until this morning neither she nor her aids had realised that Najib Razak would have the cheek to time his planned imprisonment of Anwar the day before! An irregular trial that gives the lie to Najib's claims Sophie will be there again… but what about the owner of Windsor Castle – will the Queen attend herself? The Foreign Office are well aware that the trial of Anwar Ibrahim should have ended with his solid acquittal in the High Court. After a lengthy and drawn out trial the judge ruled there was inadequate evidence to convict the opposition leader. The trial had been tainted from the start by the change of the original charge from 'rape' to a consensual act of sodomy, after it became risibly obvious that the alleged victim was more powerful than the much older alleged offender. The victim cum-'offender' has himself never been charged for this matter, which is no longer treated as a crime in most modern democracies. However, an acquittal was clearly not acceptable to the government and the prosecution launched an astonishing appeal against Anwar's acquittal. There is no precedent in the British judicial system for the prosecution to appeal against an acquittal for a crime, except in rare cases where new evidence has later come to light. But, in Najib's 'moderate Muslim democracy' the laws have clearly been altered. Shortly after Anwar announced an intention to run for the powerful position of Menteri Besar of Selangor, the Appeal Court duly struck and found him guilty after all, in the course of just half and hour's review of the evidence one morning. Will the Queen and Duke be obliged to boycott an event held in their own palace – or will they welcome and greet a Commonwealth leader who has just jailed his opponent? The Federal Court, being higher up, is even more vulnerable to political pressure and judicial placements and no one in Malaysia doubts that Anwar will be confirmed as 'guilty of sodomy'. It is a 'crime' designed to put off faithful Muslim voters on moral grounds, which is why the popular Anwar has been convicted of it twice. After 5 years in jail, all charges were dropped against Anwar over the first 'offence'. But, this time around Najib's prosecution service has further defied precedent by also appealing the Appeal Court ruling for not having imposed a long enough sentence! The Appeal Court did Najib's bidding in terms of finding Anwar guilty, but apparently their decision to give him 5 years once more was not enough for Najib Razak to feel comfortable. And after all this, Najib planned to swan over to Windsor in his private jumbo jet and pose with the Queen as a moderate Muslim leader of a democratic Commonwealth country! What better way to counter the outrage back home in Malaysia, if he could have gotten away with it! So, Will Najib succeed none the less in putting the Queen into what amounts to a shockingly embarrassing diplomatic situation, whether it takes place after or just before Anwar's show trial? Haram dogs, according to some of Najib's ministers Specifically, will Her Majesty stick it out and politely welcome her Malaysian guests and their festival designed as "an exchange of goodwill between East and West", thereby endorsing the judicial persecution of Anwar, or will she take her 'unclean' Corgi dogs and head back off to Balmoral or Sandringham, leaving Kate and Sophie to do the honours? Either way, Najib will stage himself at the centre of the Commonwealth family, in the middle of a Mugabi-style move against a legitimate opposition leader, who incidentally got more votes than him at the last election. One of Us? Perhaps the British need to wake up about Malaysia and where the real democratic instincts of that country lie politically? As one senior Conservative politician on the All Party Committee on Malaysia explained to Sarawak Report: "For Heaven's sake, the chap went to Malvern [College], he's one of us!" This is a card that the suave British public school educated son of a former Malaysian prime minister has certainly played to perfection Najib Razak over the years, winning supporters in Washington and London, while coshing democracy and human rights back home whenever his position seemed threatened. But, the British should realise, that when it comes to politics, Najib Razak simply does not play cricket. [To open Islamic Fashion Festival Slide Show: CLICK HERE] Sign up to receive regular updates from Sarawak Report

Murum Dam Is “High Risk” – Official Report Posted: 07 Aug 2014 06:17 AM PDT This post is also available in: Iban, Malay New Zealand engineer's photo-album on Murum observes logging as the 'typical sight' The Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for the Murum Dam clearly stated back in 2008 that it was a "High Risk" project, in several categories concerning basic safety, we can now reveal. In particular, the report referred to the problem of sedimentation of the upper Murum River, caused by current logging, as one of the major causes of a "High Risk" situation, in which the dam might fail. Failure of Murum, the report spells out, would in turn cause a "cascading failure" of the Bakun Dam and wipe out over half a million people in a "catastrophic" event. Sarawak Report has now further accessed a recording of a statement by Murum's former Project Director, the Hydro-Tasmania engineer Andrew Pattle, in which he admits that logging in the Murum Catchment area is causing huge volumes of earth to silt up the river, leading to recognised dangers in terms of flooding or breaking the dam. In the recording Pattle says: "Logging and hydro-development are conflicting land use requirements, very conflicting…. but our ability to stop logging [at Murum] is negligible, we are not going to be able to stop it. We need to be realistic"  [Andrew Pattle, speaking to Institute of Professional Engineers New Zealand 2012] Nevertheless, in spite of these clearly stated dangers and the "High Risk" category, Sarawak's political leader, Taib Mahmud, and the state owned company Sarawak Energy took a calculated decision to continue build this further dam upstream from Bakun. Sarawak Report asks why any responsible authority would knowingly construct a dam, which had been categorised as "HIgh Risk", thereby threatening the lives of half a million citizens and do nothing to at least counter the dangerous effects of continuing logging in the Murum catchment area? And, why would a responsible engineering company like Hydro-Tasmania encourage the building of this dam, if it knew that in Sarawak it would be impossible to stop Taib Mahmud's crony company, Shin Yang, logging in the catchment area up-river – an action that directly threatens the safety of the Murum Dam? For 'land use' read logging! Even though reduced capacity is judged "unlikely" in the report the danger of the consequences would be "Major", which puts the project in the "High Risk" category Other "High Risk" categories The Murum Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) was kept hidden for years, but has now been made widely available by its publication yesterday on Sarawak Report. It explains that the danger in building the Murum Dam lies in the fact that Bakun further downstream would be unable to withstand the impact if Murum breaks. This would cause a "cascading failure" of both dams with "catastrophic" consequences along the lower Rajang River basin.  Therefore, even if the likelihood of failure is rare, the project should be categorised as "High Risk": Likelihood or a dam break is 'Rare' (subject to construction variables) but consequences of Murum would be 'Catastrophic', so the project is HIGH RISK Throughout the report the same point is made.  The likelihood of a break in Murum is low (as long as it has been properly built), but the effects if it did break would be so catastrophic that the project should be considered "High Risk". Seismic risk This point also applies to the danger of earth tremors. Even though the risk is low in this region, the report says, there is a "High Risk", because the consequences would be so extreme: Seismic activity carries "High Risk" Likewise the threat to the life of plants and animals in this area, which till recently one of the most valuable natural habitats left on the planet is inevitable and "High Risk". The river has now dried up because of the dam impoundment with catastrophic effects on wildlife, as feared in the report.  The "High Risk" has already proved entirely correct in this category. High risk to animals and plants already born out at Murum, which has dried up! The once mighty Murum is now dead, along with its wildlife. The "High Risk" category also applies to human health! None of this stopped Taib Mahmud continuing with the project to build Murum Dam back in 2008, even though the report said there was little that could be done to mitigate the impact of diseases. Effects on Public Health were categorised as "High Risk" but Taib still went ahead What motive for Taib Mahmud? These revelations will inevitably leave all Sarawakians wondering what possible reason could there have been for Taib to persist in building a dam which no longer had any purpose? Remember, the purpose for building the dam, which was given in the so-called official "Statement of Need" had already been found to be false. The "need" given for building Murum was that all the electricity from Bakun would go to West Malaysia. This was soon found to be a technical impossibility and Bakun itself is only running at 50% capacity, leaving absolutely no need whatsoever for a second Murum Dam upstream. So, why build it? Murum' cement batching plant. Andrew Pattle, the Hydro-Tasmania seconded Project Leader for Murum pointed exactly to one very good motive in the same symposium of engineers in New Zealand in 2012. Here, he told other professionals that one of the major challenges in the construction of the dam was the supply of cement, because there is of course a monopoly of cement in Sarawak and "huge" quantities are needed for the building of this and all the other dams. That monopoly, of course, has been given by Taib to his own family company CMS! "Its all locally produced.  That's actually a bit of a problem for us because there is a cement monopoly in Sarawak and occasionally parts of Sarawak run out of cement because of problems of delivery logistics.  So cement delivery is gonig to be a problem particularly for the Baram project, to supply all of the requirements for the dam. Its about 5million cubic metres of RCC (roller compacted concrete), so it is a huge cement demand." [Andrew Pattle, speaking to Institute of Professional Engineers New Zealand 2012] Again, we ask on what grounds can such a project have been justified, except to make certain participants wealthy at the expense and safety of others? Processing the aggregate at Murum – a project that is "High Risk" for which there is no need. Download the full IEA Report on Murum: To download the full report click on the following links: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Sign up to receive regular updates from Sarawak Report

“Cascading Failure” – Catastrophic Warning On Murum Dam Was Kept Hidden! MAJOR EXCLUSIVE Posted: 05 Aug 2014 10:06 AM PDT This post is also available in: Iban, Malay Flood of Biblical proportions as illustrated in SEB's official report This diagram illustrates the "catastrophic" consequences of a possible "cascading failure" of the Murum and Bakun Dams. It comes from the official Environmental Impact Assessment report submitted to Sarawak Energy in 2008, but kept secret till now. A wall of water travelling "at high speed" is shown as having inundated nearly three thousand square kilometres of the Rajang River basin, in a disaster of Biblical proportions. It would hit Sibu within a few hours and wipe out everything in its path.  The waters would remain for several days, according to a series of official charts that detail an unfolding disaster in the event of a dam break. The charts shows that even in Sibu the flood is calculated to be around 15 meters high and further up the Rajang river basin the wave is calculated at tens of meters in height. The region is home to well over half a million people. The first 12 hours, according to Section 7 page 31 of the covered up report (CLICK TO ENLARGE) These diagrams are part of a series contained in the till now hidden Environmental Impact Assessment, which NGOs have long campaigned ought to have been made public. They have rightfully pointed out that, according to the World Bank safeguards and all other standard protocols, Environmental Impact Assessments should be made public, so that the public understand the implications of major projects such as this. Now. at last, Sarawak Report has obtained a copy: After 24 hours the Rajang River basin would be wiped out by a wall of water, bearing boulders and debris (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Summing up the threat, which Sarawak Energy and the State Government clearly wished to keep secret, the official report says: "The results suggest that a cascading failure of both dams would be a catastrophic event for all communities downstream to the ocean.  The timing of the flood wave is affected by the Pelagus Rapids… Upstream of the rapids the flood peak would arrive approximately 6 to 12 hours from failure; downstream of the rapid the flood peak would arrive approximately 12 to 36 hours from failure. Inundation of the adjacent floodplains would continue for several days following the arrival of the flood wavefront" Sarawak Report has tracked down the Impact Assessment Sarawak Energy refused to make public. Deadly positioning of Murum Dam The EIA on Murum is a comprehensive and professional document, according to experts. Murum transection – Ch 7 page 27 It was prepared by the Malaysian company Chemsain Konsultant Sdn Bhd back in 2008, but only after it was discovered that the then Chief Minister, Taib Mahmud and China's Three Gorges Dam Company were already blasting tunnels through the rock face at the Murum Gorge. What the EIA reveals is that the positioning of Murum Dam has added to the risk factors inherent in the Bakun Dam, which is the world's second tallest rock filled dam. Murum is located 70km directly uphill from Bakun and is linked by a narrow high gorge straight into the now flooded Bakun Lake, which crouches over one of Sarawak's most densely populated areas - the whole Rajang River basin. The matter is dealt with in Chapter 7 of the report, which Sarawak Report has now obtained in full. The full impact Although, the report points out that failures of these forms of Roller Compacted Concrete (RCC) dams "are expected to be very rare" it comes to a devastating conclusion about what would happen to Bakun if Murum Dam was to fail upstream: "[Murum] Dam failure would create a flood wave which would propagate at high speed to the Bakun structure. The force contained in this wave may be sufficiently intense to cause structural damage as it strikes the Bakun Dam.  The model results show that a breach failure of Murum Dam will result in water levels at Bakun Dam that exceed the PMF design maximum water level and the crest height of the dam (232.8 m amsl). This suggests that the Bakun structure is not designed to accommodate a breach failure of Murum Dam, and a cascading failure is a possibility" [Murum EIA Ch7 pg34] Put simply, because the Murum Dam is placed in the position it is, this IEA report has identified that it could act as a trigger for the failure of the much larger and more dangerous dam further downstream: "Failure of Murum Dam alone would have relatively small impact as long as Bakun Dam structural integrity is impacts would be confined to the Bakun Reservir. Major impacts would only be expected to occur during a major structural failure of Bakun Dam alone (not Murum), or a cascading failure of both Murum and Bakun Dams.  Both of these occurances would have severe consequences on the downstream river system. While this is a significant impact, its likelihood is very rare"[Murum IEA Ch7 Pg 28] Possible scénarios include the threat of a "cascading failure" of Bakun One British hydropower expert, who looked at the information, Dr Phillip Williams, told Sarawak Report the findings were "devastating": "With that number of people living downstream you would expect a very high standard of safety in the design and in all aspects and operation planning. So the purpose of the [EIA] exercise is to identify how stringent you have to be.. which is why you have to do these EIAs before and not after you charge ahead and build the dam". [Dr Phillip Williams] Report classifies project as "high risk", because even though change of failure is unlikely, the results would be so catastrophic. Was the added risk of a "cascade effect" factored in? Bakun was built before the added risk of the Murum Dam was introduced upstream. Therefore, as the report points out, Bakun was not designed to take into account the need to withstand a possible deluge into the lake behind it from Murum: "The impacts of dam break are mentioned in Section 7.3: Such event is potentially disastrous because it is likely to result in the cascading failure of Bakun Dam downstream. The downstream impacts would be phenomenal as mentioned" [Section 7.4 Murum EIA] Because of the populations below Bakun even rare or minor events carry 'high' or 'extreme' risk, says report Likewise, Murum itself was begun on the whim of the despotic Taib Mahmud before an environmental impact assessment into the possible risks had been carried out, which means that its ultra-sensitive position as a potential trigger behind a Bakun collapse was probably not taken into account into its design either. The 2008 IEA, therefore, proposes three crucial recommendations to counter the enhanced risk created by the added danger of cascading failure. Firstly, it suggests a full re-evaluation of the whole design and structure of the Murum Dam in order to take into account the added danger of cascading failure. This recommendation is essentially to re-enforce the strength and safety measures in the design and construction of a dam that was previously considered to be remote and far from endangering communities: "It is recommended that the detailed design of the dam structure fully investigates potential causes of dam failure and ensures that the design and construction methods are appropriate to ensuring that a cascading risk is outside designated design standards" [Murum EIA Ch7 section 7.3.1.3 Recommendations] The recommendations then go on to suggest two further measures "if the calculated risk of cascading failure, determined as part of the dam design, is considered to be unacceptable"' First it recommends a further investigation and strengthening of Bakun Dam to protect it from any collapse at Murum "to ensure cascading failure does not occur"; second it recommends the development of an Emergency Action Plan to evacuate the people downstream: Where is the Emergency Action Plan? Sarawak Report therefore questions SEB as to whether any of these three key recommendations in their own EIA report were ever carried out? If so, where is the Emergency Action Plan to rescue the people down river and why, six years after this report, has there been no public announcement of any form of Emergency Action Plan, even though Bakun is now full and Murum is being filled? Are Sarawak Energy and the Sarawak State Government so uncaring of its people that they have been willing to hide this embarrassing IEA, rather than going public to admit that everyone living down river should now be forced to learn what to do the moment there is a warning of a possible breach at Bakun? In many cases an early warning could give communities a few valuable hours to get out of the way of a roaring wave bearing rocks and debris that would surely obliterate every living thing in its wake. Yet what sign is there of any such escape plan having been devised for any of these communities? Did Taib Mahmud simply not care enough to warn his citizens? Or is CEO Torstein Sjotveit's recent announcement that "Murum Dam is completely safe" to be still accepted at face value and without question? The human risks as summarised by the IEA A project based on a false premise There are other reasons why SEB and the BN government would have wished to cover up the Murum EIA, because this document, which Sarawak Report has obtained in full, makes perfectly plain that the purpose given for the dam by the IEA was false. Although by 2008 it was well known that technically the Bakun Dam could not transmit its electricity undersea to West Malaysia, the Murum IEA still justifies the building of the further Murum Dam on the false premise that all the electricity from Bakun would be used by West Malaysia! The Statement of Need was never published – if it had been people could have pointed out that Murum was not needed! In fact Bakun was just last month admitted to be only running at 50% of its enormous capacity with even the ambitious industrial projects of SCORE unable to utilise its output. This means Murum is not needed by Sarawak and nor are the 15 further dams proposed under Taib's eccentric programme of 'industrialisation'. No wonder the Murum IEA has been covered up! Taib Mahmud's family companies are making far too much money out of the construction of these dams, using money borrowed on behalf of the state for him to willingly relinquish these projects – and Adenan Satem does his bidding. Untried and untested Map of the flooding from Murum Sarawak Report is concerned that the secretive Murum Dam has been a project led by novices and controlled by a corrupt and over-powerful politician, Taib Mahmud. Indeed Murum is the first major overseas dam to be completed by the Three Gorges Dam company outside of China and it was commenced in secret, after a deal between Taib, his brother in law Abdul Aziz Husain (the then CEO of SEB) and the Chinese State Government, using a loan from China. The Three Gorges Company is a still relatively new state-company, which benefitted from the transfer of technology from the western companies, which assisted Three Gorges in building the highly controversial dam on the Yangtze River. Now it is trying out its newly acquired skills on countries like Sarawak and there have been plenty of problems, like the collapsed diversion tunnel and the sub-standard turbines, which were found not suitable for installation, but have been installed anyway. So, is SEB's complacency in order at Murum, considering this Chinese company also clearly failed to spot the danger over where it was placing this dam in the first place? With so many cover-ups why should anyone accept the assurances by SEB's CEO Torstein Dale Sjotveit that "Murum Dam is completely safe"? To see Chapter 7 of the EIA click here To download the full report click on the following links: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Sign up to receive regular updates from Sarawak Report

Second Senior Engineer From Murum Dam Site Dies – EXCLUSIVE Posted: 04 Aug 2014 02:35 AM PDT This post is also available in: Iban, Malay Keen golfer – according to his Facebook Jabing Bujing was a passionate sportsman Sarawak Energy has lost a second Senior Engineer from the Murum Dam site to an un-expected and untimely death in a matter of a few weeks. As reported in the Borneo Post, Jabing Bujing sadly died in his bed shortly after returning from Sabah on 29th July. He was discovered by a family member, who was alerted by the company after Bujing, aged 48, had failed to turn up to work for 3 days. The cause of death has not yet been given, as a post mortem is still to be carried out. Just one month earlier on 12th June, Sarawak Energy's Technical Director of the Dam, Frankie Chin, also died in his bed shortly after returning from vacation in Vietnam.  He is understood to have died from a heart condition. Sources informed Sarawak Report that Jabing was also working in a senior capacity on the Murum Dam site – a fact that is born out by Facebook and Twitter notices passing between saddened colleagues and friends. A colleague at Sarawak Energy (the 'Resettlement Officer' at Murum Dam) tweets the news Bujing, who was a senior engineer on the Murum Dam sub-station project, had qualified from university in Australia and was a keen golfer. His Facebook shows that he has been on frequent trips to Shanghai in recent months, presumably linked to his business ties with the Three Gorges Dam Company, the contractor for the Murum Dam. Murum is the first dam that the Chinese state-owned has completed outside of China and it is currently half way through being filled.  It stands some 40 miles up river of the Bakun Dam and is directly linked to the Bakun Lake by a river gorge leading from the brand new structure. On site with SEB colleagues and Chinese workers Jabing's former boss, Sarawak Energy's Technical Director of Murum, Frankie Chin, was interviewed by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission shortly before his own death, according to sources close to SEB. One of SEB's top managers who went to all the right events. Sign up to receive regular updates from Sarawak Report

Murum Manager Was Investigated By MACC Before Sudden Death EXCLUSIVE! Posted: 30 Jul 2014 05:26 AM PDT This post is also available in: Iban, Malay Frankie Chin's sudden death was reported in the Borneo Post last month. Sarawak Report has learnt that Sarawak Energy's Technical Manager for the Muram Dam hydro-electric project, Frankie Chin, was questioned by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) shortly before his sudden death last month. However, The MACC has formally denied the claim. Frankie Chin died on the night of 12th June after a short illness. A contact has told Sarawak Report that Chin, who was aged 57, is understood to have died due to heart problems, shortly after returning from leave in Vietnam. A separate family friend assured Sarawak Report: "it certainly wasn't suicide. He was ill for a short time before he died in his house" The same speaker added: "It is true he was being watched by the MACC. but that happened to all his predecessors too".   Another contact confided: "Frankie was driving a new Mercedes. That led to MACC eyes on him. Heard he couldn't take it anymore." Cover-up and secrecy concerns over Murum Dam This latest revelation that Sarawak Energy (SEB)'s top technical official, in charge of the construction and safety of the Murum Dam, had been questioned by the anti-corruption authorities, casts further concern over the commissioning of this dam and subsequent safety checks. Frankie Chin was due to face an audit enquiry at SEB the day after his death and was clearly under pressure following the delivery of a devastating report in March, which pointed to 'catastrophic' defects in the turbines which had already been delivered to the dam site. The report, which was obtained by SR, contained a litany of graphic illustrations of the problems with Murum's turbine blades and runners. This report was covered up and kept secret by SEB and Sarawak Report has now heard that there are a number of other reports into the quality of the wider construction of the dam, which have been likewise covered up. Indeed there has been a worrying level of secrecy surrounding the entire project. Murum "Completely safe" – CEO Torstein Sjotveit sanctioned the cover-up and the on site repairs and then claimed the turbines were completely safe. He is currently on holiday in Norway. Another vital document, which ought to have been published is the crucial Environmental Impact Assessment (IEA), which should have been commissioned well in advance of the project and made subject to public consultation before construction was even started. In fact, the IEA was commissioned long AFTER construction had begun and has subsequently been kept secret, giving the public no opportunity to evaluate the potential damage and risks of this recently completed dam, which was commissioned by SEB from the Chinese state company, Three Gorges Development Company (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, without any consultation at all. Meanwhile, the report on the severe defects in the manufacture of the four turbines at the Murum hydro-electric plant, has now been made public, thanks to a leak to Sarawak Report. "Very risky" to attempt to repair and re-callibrate such defects on site, according to top dam engineers. SEB went ahead anyway, saving Three Gorges the expense of removing the turbines back to the China workshop. The report had been presented to SEB by the Norwegian consultancy Norconsult 20th March and Frankie Chin was in the individual in charge, reporting to his boss the CEO Torstein Sjotveit. Norconsult had concluded that the Murum turbines were so seriously defective that they were "not suitable for installation or operation". However, SEB evidently decided to cover up the report and instead to attempt to conduct the sophisticated "repairs" on site, rather than hold up the construction of the dam. Experts have told Sarawak Report that such a measure is  unheard of in mainstream dam construction and extremely risky. Concerns about wide-spread bribery of officials over Murum Dam project According to documents in our possession, Frankie Chin was the key manager at SEB who negotiated on this crisis with the Three Gorges Dam Company and with the company Harbin, which was apparently responsible for manufacturing the turbines. Given that the decision to attempt to repair the turbines in situ, instead of returning them to the factory, was highly risky, the new evidence that there were concerns on the part of the MACC that Mr Chin may have received unauthorised payments is highly disturbing. Sources extremely close to the project and to Frankie Chin have told Sarawak Report that Chin was questioned over whether he was receiving bribes from a contractor on the project. The same sources told Sarawak Report that numerous other staff, including those at extremely senior levels linked to the turbine report have also fallen under strong suspicion over receiving bribes from the same contractor. Murum turbines due to be tested shortly Experts say that it is impossible to confidently re-weld and re-calibrate such defects as on these blades outside the machine shop. There is now further concern that even the risky and far from certain on site repairs of the Murum turbines may not in fact have been fully carried out, if at all. The huge secrecy surrounding the construction of the dam, which has been handled by foreign workers and which is sealed off from all public scrutiny, means that no one can be sure what repairs if any have been undertaken. Meanwhile, testing of the turbines is due to begin shortly, according to our inside information. This is despite the fact that experts agree that the defective and unfinished blades identified in the report are likely to erode extremely rapidly and sheer off, causing potentially catastrophic damage in a relatively short period. Such damage would render the dam at best a white elephant project, producing little or none of the promised electricity.  At worst it could threaten lives in the event of an explosive breakage of the turbine casing, as happened in Russia in 2009. Update: Following our report the MACC denied formally that it has made any investigation into the Murum Dam project: Sign up to receive regular updates from Sarawak Report

You are subscribed to email updates from Sarawak Report To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610