Whistleblower website Sarawak Report
yesterday revealed how state-funded development projects in Kuching are
used to channel money to the companies linked to members of Sarawak
Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud's family living abroad.
Citing
mostly information available publicly, the website says this is shown
in the Kuching Isthmus, a project being jointly developed by the state
and the Taib family-linked company, Cahya Mata Sarawak (CMS).
According to the Kuching Isthmus website, the luxury hotel and office complex development has a gross development value of RM2.8 billion.
An announcement by CMS to its shareholders states that the RM380 million project, will be a a joint-venture between its subsidiary CMS Land and with four other companies.
The
companies include Premier Cottage Sdn Bhd, which holds a 51 percent
stake in the project and has Taib's Canadian son-in-law Sean Murray, who
married Jamilah (photo) in 1987, as its director.
Also listed as directors of Premier Cottage are the CM's sister-in-law Gertie Chong and his other daughter, Hanifah.
The website reported that the sole shareholder of Premier Cottage is an offshore company called Pioneer City Enterprises, which "supplies no profile or country address, despite having been awarded a significant public project".
Sarawak Report said Sean is also director of other companies linked to Taib, most prominently Sakto Corporation in Canada, which is funded with "interest-free" loans from unnamed shareholders.
Sakto's 1985 financial statement published by the website states that the shareholders of the company, Jamilah, her brother Abu Bekir and uncle Onn Mahmud, "have not set repayment terms for the loans".
"By 1993, those shareholders (who can remain anonymous in Canada) had increased the investment to over (Canadian) $25 million and the company now has properties worth hundreds of millions of dollars," it reported.
Sean joined the company in 1987, after he married Jamilah, but the company was founded in 1983 with a seed investment of more than C$4 million, it said.
Murray international empire
Sarawak Report also revealed that Taib's Canada-based family members have their hands on another lucrative Kuching development project - the Kuching Tower.
"City Gate Corporation (part of the Ottawa-based Sakto Group) also snaffled a C$110 million contract to design the much talked about Kuching Tower, together with another company called ZW Group," it reported.
Its checks on ZW Group showed that the company operates from the same address as the Aberdeen Project Facilitators company.
"Aberdeen Project Facilitators Inc... was formally awarded the management of the Kuching Tower project (right) in 2006.
"The director of (the company) and the project manager of ZW both happen to be one Thady Murray," it said, adding that Thady is president of City Gate and a relative of Sean.
It revealed that Sean is also director of several other companies in the United Kingdom and Australia that are subsidiaries of Sakto, which is also funded in the same way as the parent company.
Sean's cousin Christopher was reported to be running Sakto sister company Ridgeford Properties, London, which set up Astar Properties that Sarawak Report said is operated out of the CMS Trust Fund.
"These discoveries make a further mockery of Taib's claims that his family ‘does no business in Sarawak'.
"During the recent state election campaign, the chief minister countered critics of his family's wealth by claiming his children and relatives had earned all their money through business activities outside Sarawak and that he had never exploited his political position!" the website said.
In campaign videos posted online in the lead-up to the election, Taib said that "Jamilah's business in Canada is successful because she is good".
He also said that he had specifically avoided doing business in Sarawak to avoid claims of conflict of interest.
Citing
mostly information available publicly, the website says this is shown
in the Kuching Isthmus, a project being jointly developed by the state
and the Taib family-linked company, Cahya Mata Sarawak (CMS).According to the Kuching Isthmus website, the luxury hotel and office complex development has a gross development value of RM2.8 billion.
An announcement by CMS to its shareholders states that the RM380 million project, will be a a joint-venture between its subsidiary CMS Land and with four other companies.
The
companies include Premier Cottage Sdn Bhd, which holds a 51 percent
stake in the project and has Taib's Canadian son-in-law Sean Murray, who
married Jamilah (photo) in 1987, as its director.Also listed as directors of Premier Cottage are the CM's sister-in-law Gertie Chong and his other daughter, Hanifah.
The website reported that the sole shareholder of Premier Cottage is an offshore company called Pioneer City Enterprises, which "supplies no profile or country address, despite having been awarded a significant public project".
Sarawak Report said Sean is also director of other companies linked to Taib, most prominently Sakto Corporation in Canada, which is funded with "interest-free" loans from unnamed shareholders.
Sakto's 1985 financial statement published by the website states that the shareholders of the company, Jamilah, her brother Abu Bekir and uncle Onn Mahmud, "have not set repayment terms for the loans".
"By 1993, those shareholders (who can remain anonymous in Canada) had increased the investment to over (Canadian) $25 million and the company now has properties worth hundreds of millions of dollars," it reported.
Sean joined the company in 1987, after he married Jamilah, but the company was founded in 1983 with a seed investment of more than C$4 million, it said.
Murray international empire
Sarawak Report also revealed that Taib's Canada-based family members have their hands on another lucrative Kuching development project - the Kuching Tower.
"City Gate Corporation (part of the Ottawa-based Sakto Group) also snaffled a C$110 million contract to design the much talked about Kuching Tower, together with another company called ZW Group," it reported.
Its checks on ZW Group showed that the company operates from the same address as the Aberdeen Project Facilitators company.
"Aberdeen Project Facilitators Inc... was formally awarded the management of the Kuching Tower project (right) in 2006."The director of (the company) and the project manager of ZW both happen to be one Thady Murray," it said, adding that Thady is president of City Gate and a relative of Sean.
It revealed that Sean is also director of several other companies in the United Kingdom and Australia that are subsidiaries of Sakto, which is also funded in the same way as the parent company.
Sean's cousin Christopher was reported to be running Sakto sister company Ridgeford Properties, London, which set up Astar Properties that Sarawak Report said is operated out of the CMS Trust Fund.
"These discoveries make a further mockery of Taib's claims that his family ‘does no business in Sarawak'.
"During the recent state election campaign, the chief minister countered critics of his family's wealth by claiming his children and relatives had earned all their money through business activities outside Sarawak and that he had never exploited his political position!" the website said.
In campaign videos posted online in the lead-up to the election, Taib said that "Jamilah's business in Canada is successful because she is good".
He also said that he had specifically avoided doing business in Sarawak to avoid claims of conflict of interest.
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