FUNNY BUSINESS IN HONG KONG

Sarawak's timber has been shipped out over the past 30 years
- has the money been shipped in to Taib-linked bank accounts?

Corrupt Barisan Nasional : MACC Investigators have a headache in store for them when they turn to Hong Kong, such is the tangled web of Taib family shareholdings. 

However, delving into these business concerns will throw up some intriguing coincidences, as Sarawak Report’s own researches can already demonstrate.

We can also demonstrate how a number of Taib-linked companies are now owned or being managed out of the BVI by one of the Philippine’s top bankers Franciso C Sebastian, who started his career as a Financial Advisor in Hong Kong.  We suggest that investigations in Hong Kong hold the key to tracing the early development of Taib’s international web of global investments as the profits from felling Sarawak’s rainforests escaped abroad.

SURPRISE? WHAT SURPRISE?

Mounting pressure brings denials
from the Chief Minister

Corrupt Barisan Nasional : The Chief Minister has denied he has illegal foreign assets.  He previewed the statement, made today in the State Assembly, as a ‘surprise announcement’. 

Onlookers would have been surprised if he had announced his resignation, the honourable course of action, given official investigations now underway into his corruption and abuse of power.  However, few will have been surprised by his string of denials!

The actual nature of his ‘categorical’ denials were in fact rather confusing, however.  What exactly was he denying when he said:

“Let me state categorically that I have no secret Swiss bank account, nor assets or investments of any description. None whatsoever”.Taib in the DUN today.

Police report against Taib-linked coal plant

Corrupt Barisan Nasional - KUCHING: Angry villagers in the Rumah Bansan longhouse in Mukah have lodged a police report against the Mukah coal-fired power plant, which is linked to Chief Minister Taib Mahmud’s family- owned conglomerate Cahaya Mata Sarawak (CMS).

In their report, the Ibans in the 13-door longhouse claimed that sea water entering their rivers during high tide had caused severe erosion and destruction to their crops and properties.

They claimed the land erosions were due to the construction of a cooling pond, which was meant to supply adequate water to cool the plant’s coal-powered generators.

Furious Hadi orders 1 million PAS members to attend Bersih

Corrupt Barisan Nasional : UMNO has had it easy for too long. So has the BN coalition it heads. Prime Minister Najib Razak has not been shy to bully his way through using the might of the government machinery and the institutions of authority to maintain his momentum.

But with the next general election on the way, the Pakatan Rakyat led by Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim is starting to show its long-held-back muscle. Leaders all three component parties PAS, PKR and DAP have declared their unreserved support for the Bersih 2.0 rally organised by 62 of the country's most established NGOs.

The rally is mean to be a citizens' march for democracy, culiminating with the delivery of a memorandum to the King, demanding free and fair elections. But Najib and his UMNO party believe that the march is a slap in the face to his leadership.

Let God deal with Taib Mahmud

Corrupt Barisan Nasional : From Alan Newman, NZ. Via e-mail

Taib Mahmud, cunning as you are, you would have moved funds from Switzerland long ago. What about these:

Were timber concession all over Sarawak awarded by clear, public, gazette tenders for maximum returns to the state? Or just dished out to your cronies?

The RM5-10 billion yearly in timber exports in the last 40 years? Totaling RM200-400 billion.

The RM2-9 billion yearky in oil palm exports in the last 15 years? Totaling RM30-135 billion

Awarding of LRT contract lacks transparency

Corrupt Barisan Nasional : From Paul Low and Josie Fernandez, via e-mail

Transparency International Malaysia (TI-M) views with grave concern the lack of transparency in the awarding of the Kelana Jaya light rail transit (LRT) extension contract.

News reports claim that the Finance Ministry has ignored the recommendations of the LRT operator, Syarikat Prasarana Negara Bhd. The news reports have quoted political analysts and industry executives as saying that the “behind-the-scenes intrigue shows how opaque and non-transparent practices that have long characterised large public-sector contract awards remain the order of the day in Malaysia”.

Motions on money politics and ‘corrupt’ CM rejected

Corrupt Barisan Nasional - KUCHING: The Sarawak Legislative Assembly Speaker Asfia Awang Nasar yesterday rejected bids by opposition DAP to debate money politics in the recent state elections and allegations of corruption against Chief Minister Taib Mahmud.

Citing various ground to support his decision, Asfia rejected Opposition Leader Wong Ho Leng’s move to table the two motions.

In tabling his first motion, Wong who is Bukit Assek assemblyman said that vote buying had been rampant in Tamin constituency in the April 16 election as alleged by Malaysian election observers.

TAIB’S FOREIGN BUSINESS PARTNERS – EXCLUSIVE EVIDENCE

Deutsch Bank HQ

Corrupt Barisan Nasional : The launching of an official investigation into Taib Mahmud by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) has increased the pressure on the Chief Minister’s web of global investments.

Anti-money laundering campaigners are now demanding action from Germany to freeze Taib’s assets held by the country’s largest bank Deustche Bank.  This follows the Swiss Government’s announcement of its own investigation into the assets owned by the billionaire Chief Minister.

Germany urged to freeze Taib’s assets

Corrupt Barisan Nasional - KUALA LUMPUR: Germany, which has been in the forefront on calls for the “effective combating of corruption”, has been urged to “freeze all the assets of kleptocrat” Sarawak Chief Minister Taib Mahmud.

The call for Chancellor Angella Merkel to “clarify business ties” that leading German financial institute, Deutsche Bank, has with Taib comes just over month after Switzerland said it would investigate the matter.

Three Swiss and German NGOs wrote to Merkel informing her of Duetsche Bank’s lucrative involvement with Taib.

Bagloads of money to buy Iranian gas, oil

CORRUPT BARISAN NASIONAL - KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysians firms were overly keen to invest in oil and gas in Iran, to the extent of carrying “suitcases of money” to the Islamic republic to buy concessions, revealed a confidential US cable.

Quoting a Malaysia Foreign Ministry official, the US cable stated that “Malaysian firms go to Iran with suitcases of money to purchase oil and gas concessions from the Iranians”.

The Malaysian official, Muhammad Radzi Jamaludin, was quoted in the cable as telling US diplomats that the Malaysian firms bring “too much cash to count the money, so they weigh it to determine if the amount is correct”.

Khir pressured me to lie, says Ditamas boss

Corrupt Barisan Nasional - SHAH ALAM: Former Selangor menteri besar Dr Mohd Khir Toyo had put pressure on Ditamas Sdn Bhd director Shamsuddin Hayroni to lie to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) in 2009 so as not to implicate either of them in any offence.

“When I was called in by the MACC in 2009, I received a lot of pressure from Khir,” Shamsuddin testified today when being re-examined by deputy public prosecutor Abdul Wahab Mohamed at the corruption trial of Khir at the Shah Alam High Court.

“At the time… I was asked not to involve him and myself in any charges,” he said, prompting some angry exclamations from some Khir supporters seated in the packed gallery.

Why are Umno and Zul Nordin so afraid of Bersih 2.0

Corrupt Barisan Nasional : On July 9, there will be a rally in the Malaysian capital. It is called the BERSIH rally. It is peaceful demonstration to promote free and fair elections. But the UMNO-owned Utusan Malaysia calls the rally ‘dirty’.

Can’t Utusan read Malay? If the rally is called ‘Kotor’, will Utusan then say that the rally is Clean? Already 13 police reports have been lodged, mostly by the UMNO Youth Wing, Perkasa, Abim and others. They called it dirty and un-Islamic. How can the ‘Bersih’ Rally be un-Islamic?

They continue to say that PAS is not Malay or Muslim, PAS members did not vote for change and that the Ulamak in PAS were against the Rally. Before PAS was branded as an extremist Islamic Party, and now they say that PAS and the Bersih Rally is un-Islamic.

MACC opened a file on Taib?

Corrupt Barisan Nasional l Taib Mahmud

KUCHING: Has the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) really opened a file on Sarawak Chief Minister Taib Mahmud or is its recent announcement that the commission is “gathering more information” under MACC Act 2009 merely a farce?

Posing the question, DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang also asked if MACC had “outsourced” the “gathering of information” to “any research organisation”.

“What (MACC chief commissioner) Abu Kassim (Mohamad) said is a great improvement to his stony silence just two months ago.

The difference between Rosmah and Imelda: Rosmah's handbag costs more

Corrupt Barisan Nasional l Written by  J. D. Lovrenciear

Why does Prime Minister Najib's current wife always get into the news circuit for all the wrong reasons and all the time? Indeed it is mind boggling. Could it be that she was born under an unlucky star and therakyat (populace) are absolutely wicked devils?

If she carries out a task, there is a flaw. If she opens her mouth - be it in response to a global-scale disaster or at some local political rally, she fouls up easily. If she goes on an overseas trip she trips all the time. And now, the latest that is riling up the rakyat - her million-ringgit handbag.

‘Khir paid me RM500,000 in cash each time’

Corrupt Barisan Nasional l Khir Toyo - SHAH ALAM: A freelance landscape designer claimed that he received more than RM6 million in cash from former Selangor menteri besar Dr Mohd Khir Toyo and Ditamas Sdn Bhd director Shamsuddin Haryoni for a project involving a bungalow in Section 7 here.

Nasir Ismail, 55, told the High Court hearing Khir’s corruption trial that he was hired by the latter in 2006 to convert the house on Jalan Suasa in line with a Balinese garden concept after being introduced to the politician by one Dr Karim Mansor (Tanjong Sepat state assemblyman), as Khir liked his previous work for Karim’s house.

Corruption in forestry department ‘deal’?

Corrupt Barisan Nasional l KUCHING: Natives from six villages on the west of Sungai Sarawak Kiri have lodged a report with the MACC against a timber company on the advice their BN MP James Dawos Mamit.

Representatives from the six villages, in and around Semadang and Skio, want the MACC to investigate the logging company’s timber  license.

This is because they believe the company had encroached into an area believed to be a water catchment site.

Villages Action Committee chairman, Joseph Renggas, said the company was logging timber in a 2,112 hectare forest reserve between Sg Tu and Sg Sanga in Semadang and Skio.

Scandal, Corruption: Haris Onn Hussein

Corrupt Barisan Nasional l Haris Onn Najib Razak

By : Richard Baker and Nick McKenzie

June 6, 2011

THE Reserve Bank firm Securency hired a company owned by a close relative of Malaysia's Prime Minister and Home Affairs Minister - the two men with whom the Gillard government is negotiating to swap asylum seekers - to help win banknote contracts.

The revelation comes amid growing sensitivity within the federal government about the Australian Federal Police investigation of Securency and the potential for Australia's international relations to be harmed if foreign officials allegedly linked to the RBA firm's bribes are named.

SWISS PRESIDENT ORDERS AN INVESTIGATION INTO TAIB’S ASSETS! – EXCLUSIVE.

President of the Swiss Federation, Micheline Calmy-Rey, is to
address the matter of freezing Taib's assets in Switzerland

Corrupt Barisan Nasional : In a fullsome letter to the Swiss-based NGO, the Bruno Manser Foundation, the President of the Swiss Federation Micheline Calmy-Rey has revealed that she has forwarded information about Taib Mahmud’s assets in Switzerland to the regulatory body FINMA (the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority) for investigation.

Calmy-Rey (pictured left at the Davos World Economic Forum, which is hosted annually in Switzerland) is the country’s Head of State.

The letter, sent on April 8th, is revealingly entitled: “Freezing of possible assets of Abdul Taib Mahmud, head of government of the Malaysian state of Sarawak, in Switzerland”.