UK gov't 'monitoring' MACC probe on Taib

The British government will be monitoring the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s (MACC) investigation into Sarawak Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud.

According to Swiss-based Bruno Manser Fund (BMF), the British government also pledged to use MACC’s investigation results to support a UK investigation.

“This has been confirmed in a letter to the BMF from British Minister of State Jeremy Browne, the minister who holds responsibility for Britain’s relations with Malaysia,” said the group in a statement late yesterday.

BMF states that Browne had communicated that the group’s complaint against Taib’s family for alleged money-laundering activities in the UK and British offshore financial centres had been forwarded to relevant UK authorities.

“The UK attaches considerable importance to the integrity and supervision of its financial services industry and property sector, so concrete allegations of money laundering are taken very seriously,” minister Browne was quoted as saying by BMF.

BMF previously had alerted British Prime Minister David Cameron about suspected money-laundering by the Taib family and called on the British government to freeze their ‘illicit’ assets in the UK.

Their target is Ridgeford Properties, a company which allegedly holds luxury properties in central London worth several hundred million British pounds.

The company is controlled by Taib’s daughter Jamilah Taib Murray and his Canadian son-in-law, Sean Murray.

BMF, a native rights advocacy group, has been aggressively campaigning for governments to clamp down on Taib’s assets, particularly those in the property sector, reportedly stretching from the west coast of North America to England.