*Pic: Abdul Taib Mahmud …
• Bruno Manser Fund / Basel, Switzerland
Lukas Straumann: Australia urged to probe Sarawak Governor’s family for money-laundering
(ADELAIDE, AUSTRALIA). Pressure is mounting on Australian authorities to open criminal proceedings against the family of Sarawak Governor and former Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud over the alleged laundering of AUS$ 30 million in South Australia.
A new report released today by the Bruno Manser Fund (BMF) is showing that the Malaysian politician’s four children and his late wife Laila invested $30 million of unexplained wealth in the Adelaide Hilton Hotel.
The Taibs took over the hotel from the sons of Sarawak tycoon Ting Phek Khiing in January 1994. The takeover coincided in time with the award of a multi-billion-dollar construction contract for the Bakun dam to Ting by the Malaysian government.
Despite Taib Mahmud’s modest salary as Chief Minister, Taib’s closest family members had the means to buy AUS $ 10 million in shares of Sitehost Pty Ltd, the company owning and operating the landmark Hilton Hotel at Adelaide’s Victoria Square.
Another AUS $ 20 million were sent to Adelaide via loans from Golborne and Fordland, two Australian Taib family companies which were linked to a secret offshore structure on the Isle of Man.
Australian Sitehost director Gary Doherty said to the Sydney Morning Herald on Tuesday „he did not know the source of the funds behind Golborne or Fordland“ but claimed that „he had no involvement in money laundering“.
„The financial irregularities we found with Sitehost resemble the ones with Taib family real estate in Canada, the United States and England “, said Lukas Straumann, the executive director of the Bruno Manser Fund. BMF has identified Taib family real estate in these countries with a net worth exceeding US $ 300 million.
The BMF report inspired a motion by South Australian Greens Leader and MP Mark Parnell, which is being filed today in the South Australian State Parliament.
The Motion calls on the government to freeze Taib family assets based on South Australia’s unexplained wealth legislation. It also says the matter should be referred to appropriate Federal Government and law enforcement agencies.
• Bob Brown Foundation / Hobart, Australia
Bob Brown Foundation joins international organisation Bruno Manser Fund to track Sarawak corruption
In a report by the Swiss-based Bruno Manser Fund, Australia has been implicated with the activities of Sarawak’s multi-billionaire Taib family.
The Australian Government has funded the logging practices of Ta Ann in Tasmania’s native forests. Ta Ann is one of Sarawak’s biggest timber companies and is Taib family-owned.
‘Now comes these allegations by Bruno Manser Fund about another branch of the Taib family exporting its ill-gained wealth to Australia through the purchase of the Adelaide Hilton.
‘The Bob Brown Foundation is calling on the Australian Government to pursue full disclosure of the alleged money laundering activity by the politically prominent Sarawak entities as revealed by Bruno Manser Fund’s report into the Adelaide Hilton case,’ Jenny Weber said.
‘Australia needs to investigate these allegations of money laundering, tax avoidance and corruption. It should ensure higher levels of transparency in the activities of the Taib family in this country,’ Jenny Weber said.
‘The Australian Government watchdogs have shown a reluctance to crack down on international tax avoidance and corruption by wealthy private companies and individuals in favour of facilitating business. Yet the Malaysian state of Sarawak has been an epicentre of corruption, displacement of indigenous peoples, abuse of human rights and globally significant deforestation’, Jenny Weber said.
‘The money trail from Sarawak’s relentless logging industry and dam-building expansion needs to be questioned with rigour in this country,’ she said.
• SMH: Allegations family of Malaysian billionaire Taib Mahmud ‘laundered’ money in Australia A billionaire politician under investigation for corruption in Malaysia faces allegations his family companies have laundered millions of dollars through the Australian real estate market. The allegations against the family of Sarawak governor Taib Mahmud are contained in a report, obtained by Fairfax Media, by an anti-corruption organisation in Switzerland concerned with logging of rainforests in Borneo and displacement of its indigenous people. In its report, “The Adelaide Hilton Case – how a Malaysian politician’s family laundered $30 million in South Australia”, the Bruno Manser Fund (a Swiss non-government organisation) exposes the corporate connections behind Taib’s company Sitehost, which owns Adelaide’s $50 million Hilton Hotel …
• Free Malaysia Today: Move in Australia to freeze Taib family assets
