Another Revelation By Sarawak Report On Taib's Property..This Time In London

Kuching
Monday, 12th July 2010

It's another revelation by Sarawak Report on the property belong to Taib's Empire, but this time in London. Based on this revealetion, it is now  prooven that Taib's empire is greater than the empire belonged to  Great Kublai Khan and Alexander the Great.

Kublai Khan empire covered Asia to Eastern Europe, whereas Alexander the Great stretched from Europe to Central Asia. But the empire of  this Melanau Pehin from Sarawak's, is stretching from Canada to America and until Australia in the Pacific. The latest revealetion by Sarawak Report claimed that Taib also own a property in London (Europe), with this it is proven now that this Melanau Pehin could be one of the richest man in the world.

Please see the latest article by Sarawak Report below. As a Sarawakian myself, I would like to thanks and congratulate Sarawak Report for the effort made to track down the property belong to this Pehin worldwide. Eventhough no arrest has been made by MACC so far, but we hope this will not hamper Sarawak Report to reveal more property belong to this Pehin..To Sarawak Report, keep it up . Remember Marcos and Suharto, we hope Taib will recieve the same fate .

Racehorses, residences in swanky Fitzrovia and offices bang next door to the Bank of England. Yes, the Taibs are in London too. In this latest exclusive investigation, Sarawak Report can reveal the full details of Ridgeford Properties Limited, a multi-million pound property company in the UK, once again owned and funded by the family of Chief Minister, Abdul Taib Mahmud.

The London base of the Taib family’s international property portfolio was started in October 1996 under a Canadian, Chistopher Murray. Christopher Murray is the cousin of Sean Murray who is married to Jamilah Taib, the Chief Minister’s daughter and a key lynch-pin for his foreign property empire. Sean Murray acts as Chairman of Ridgeford, while Christopher has been appointed the London-based Flagship Development off Oxford Street

Managing Director. Sean Murray is also President of Sakto Corporation in Canada and Sakti International in the USA, as well as a Director of Sitehost Pty in Australia. These are all major property companies of which his wife and her family (the Taibs) are the owners and shareholders

Again, whilst an impression has been given that Ridgeford Properties is part of a wider business started and owned by the Murray family, Sarawak report has established that it in fact relies on millions of pounds worth of soft loans from a private investor based in the British Virgin Islands. This investor has clear links to the Taib family fortune and to the public Sarawak-based company, which they largly own, CMS (Cahya Mata Sarawak). Many questions have been raised as to the legitimacy of the Taib family’s ownership of CMS, which was once Sarawak’s largest state company, but was then ‘privatised’ by the Chief Minister into the hands of his own close family.

Central London Portfolio

Scores of Stylish Flats for Sale

Ridgeford Properties Limited currently boasts seven major Central London ‘mixed-use’ developments, including luxury flats and thousands of square feet of rented-out office space. According to the company’s own online information just one such property, Tokenhouse Yard ajacent to the Bank of England, is netting the company £1.5 million in rent per annum, whilst of course remaining a valuable and appreciating asset.

All In The Family - Managing Director Chris Murray

Another stunning showcase for Ridgeford is 50 Bolsover Street, in Fitzrovia near Oxford Street. This massive development is in partnership with the prestigious Royal National Othorpaedic Hospital and All Souls College, Oxford along with a fellow developer, the Manhattan Loft Company. According to our research, the first part of this two-stage development has consisted of 210,000 square ft of prime property sold as 66 flats and 4 penthouses for between £1,000 and £1,200 per square foot – giving a total value of well over £210,000,000 (just over one billion ringgit at current exchange rates). The second phase of the project, which is due to complete in 2012 will consist of another 60 flats for sale, making it almost as lucrative as stage one.

 

Modern Office Block Gets Top Rents For Taibs

Meanwhile, in trendy Clerkenwell another Ridgeford development, Ironmonger Row, has seen 12 ‘prestige appartments’ and 2 penthouses sell for what the company describes as ‘well in excess of previous developments in the area’. The company retains the lower part of the building for rent as retail and office space and boasts that this is occupied by top shoe designer Christian Louboutin. Another property, a bright red, modern office high-rise, ’Maple Street’, has secured a 15 year rent as the Headquarters for the famous travel company Thomas Cook at record prices, according to Ridgeford’s publicity material.

Developer with a difference is bullish over recession

Interestingly, while most London developers are now cash-strapped because of the credit crunch, Ridgeford Managing Director, Christopher Murray, says the company sees this period of recession as a good opportunity for more business. As he explained to one reporter, ”we see this period as an opportunity to buy right, as there is less competition. Where there were once 30 companies chasing one

development now there will just be two”. His statement clearly implies that Ridgford is less vulnerable than most to the current loan squeeze and this ties in with evidence from the company’s public financial records, which show that Ridgeford has access to sizeable loans on highly favourable terms from a mysterious donor named Tess Investments, based in the British Virgin Islands. Sarawak Report has found clear links between Tess Investments and the Taibs.

 Links to Sakto Corporation Canada and the Taib Family

 Ridgeford’s company website acknowledges that Ridgeford is a ’sister company’ of Sakto Corporation, based in Ottawa Canada and run by Sean (Hisham) Murray, the husband of Jamilah Taib. Numerous members of Murray’s family have become employed by Sakto since Sean’s marriage to Jamilah in 1987, including Brian Murray who is in charge of office letting in Ottawa, Thady Murray who acts as President of City Gate Corporation, another sister company, and Christopher Murray in London.

Christopher Murray claimed in a recent interview that Sakto is a “family business” started by “my cousin’s father and my father. They had an architectural practice and then got into development”. However, Sakto was in fact started in 1983 in Ottawa by Onn Mahmud, Mahmud Taib and Jamilah Taib, the Chief Minister’s brother, son and daughter, well before Jamilah met and married Sean Murray. Likewise millions of dollars had been invested in developments before Sean Murray became involved in the company.

Trendy Mixed Use - Clerkenwell

Sarawak Report therefore contends that Sakto and its sister companies are in fact a Taib family business, which employs several members of Sean Murray’s family in different departments of its property empire. According to Ridgeford’s financial records Christopher Murray was paid a salary of £178,175 in 2009, a considerable rise from £47,917 in 1998, which apparently enables him to live in a £5 million apartment, as he claimed in the same recent interview. Ridgeford accounts also indicate the company has funded a racehorse in past years, indicating certain added value to be gained from working for the in-laws.

The financial connection

Ridgeford Properties, according to its 2009 Financial Statement ‘relies significantly’ on loans. This includes over £15.5 million of mostly interest-free and open ended loans, from Tess Investments, c/o Equity Trust (BVI) Ltd, PO Box 438, British Virgin Islands. It is notable that Tess Investments was incorporated on 23rd October 1996, the day before Ridgeford was incorporated in London on October 24th 1996. The majority of these loans are not secured on any properties owned by Ridgeford, representing stunningly generous terms from anyone who was not a direct shareholder of the company.

50 Bolsover Street - 60 More Fancy Flats Due For the Market by 2012

The original shareholder of Ridgeford was in fact a company called Astar Properties, incorporated on October 4th 1996, also in the British Virgin Islands (a well-known tax haven) and also sharing the same Equity Trust Agent and PO Box 438 address. Astar Properties also has shares in Sitehost Pty, the Australian property company belonging to the Taibs.

It is notable that CMS (Cahya Mata Sarawak) the once state-owned company that was ‘privatised’ into the Taib’s family’s personal control by the end of 1996 also has a banking division in the British Virgin Islands. CMS in the BVI is also registered at the very same PO Box 438 address and with the same agent, as Astar Properties and Tess Investments, according to information made public by Equity Trust and available on the internet.

In 2001 documents show that Astar’s shareholding in Ridgeford was then passed directly to City Gate International Corporation, which is based at Sakto’s Headquarters in Ottawa. Jamilah Taib and Sean Murray are the registered directors of City Gate and Thady Murray is employed as President.

Sarawak Report therefore challenges the Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud to acknowledge that Ridgeford Properties in London was set up and financed by the Taib family and remains part of the Taib global property empire, which is largely owned and ultimately controlled by himself. We further ask how with him earning a salary of just 20,000 ringgit a month his family has been able to afford to pay millions of pounds into this property company and others across the globe. So far the Chief Minister has found no answer to our revelations, so will it be different this time?

The Above article has been published in Sarawak Report.
 
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Sarawak Chieftain's US Properties

Kuching
Thursday, 8th July 2010

The FBI is at home in a Taib office building in Seattle

We reprint the second report by the Sarawak Project, an NGO based in the East Malaysian state, which has done an exhaustive study of the property holdings controlled by Abdul Taib Mahmud, who as long-serving chief minister controls an enormous empire of natural resources that for decades has allegedly gone to serve his family’s interests rather than the state’s. In the wake of an opposition victory in the town of Sibu in May, Taib for the first time faces the real possibility he could be defeated in the state election which must be held before the end of 2011.

When you have dozens of properties and as many companies to manage them it is always a good trick to stick to similar names. Sarawak Report can reveal that there is a US arm to the Taib family’s North American property empire.

In Ottawa, Canada the family’s interests are managed by Sakto Corporation, but in the US they are managed by Sakti International Corporation. Sakti International Corporation comprises properties totalling an estimated value of US$80 million according to their own company documents. Each property is held under a separate company, usually named after the property’s street address, again in order to aid recognition. For example, W.A. Boylston manages 1117 Boylston St, Seattle (shown right).

However, one of these companies is not so named. Wallyson’s Incorporated, based in Seattle, operates what is known as the Abraham Lincoln Building. The Abraham Lincoln Building houses an FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) facility and to enter requires maximum security clearance.

This is the North West Regional Headquarters for the FBI, America’s domestic security and counter-terrorism service. The Seattle branch lists among its particular responsibilities countering terrorism threats from Far East Asia. This building is owned by the Taib family.

Sakti’s other main US office block, 260 California Street, San Francisco, also rents space to an impressive list of clients including Citibank. It shows once again the Taib family’s ability to ingratiate with the establishment in host countries for their foreign investments.

Taib company history in the USA

Also like Sakto, Sakti is currently managed by Sean Murray, husband of Jamilah Taib, who is the daughter of Abdul Taib Mahmud, Chief Minister of Sarawak (salary RM20,000 per month). Sean Murray was re-named Hisham Murray when he converted to the Muslim faith on his marriage to Jamilah, but never uses this name in his business or social capacities outside of Sarawak.

However recent court documents deposited with the San Francisco Superior Court show that the company has always belonged to the Taib family. Sakti makes several key acknowledgements in its deposition to the court. The company admits that Sakti was incorporated in California in 1987 and that it was initially managed by Mahmud Abu Bekir Taib. The documents state “The Defendants [Sakti International Corporation] admit that beginning September 10, 1987, Sakti’s designated Chief Executive Officer, Secretary and Chief Financial Officer was Mahmud Taib”.

Previous revelations in Sarawak Report have proved that Mahmud Taib, the eldest son of the Chief Minister, was also an original Director of Sakto in Canada, formed in 1983, along with his sister Jamilah and their uncle Onn Mahmud, the Chief Minister’s brother.

Court Admissions

The Sakti court deposition goes on to admit that Mahmud Taib, who is now a Director of CMS Sarawak, was later succeeded by his younger brother Sulaiman Abdul Rahman Taib as “sole officer and director of Sakti.” Sarawak Report has documents to show that he was also the sole officer of Wallyson’s.

When Sakti was incorporated in 1987 Mahmud Taib was 27 years old and his brother Rahman Taib was just 20. However, the youthful brothers were supported in their roles by the involvement of other close family members. Two of the Chief Minister’s brothers (Mahmud Taib’s uncles) joined him as the original directors of the company. The deposition by Sakti says “[The] Defendants admit that the original members of Sakti’s Board of Directors were Onn Mahmud, Arip Mahmud and Mahmud Taib”.

Shareholders

Equally significantly Sakti admits that the shareholders of Sakti are all the Chief Minister’s own children or his brothers. The document deposited by Sakti International Corporation states ”the original shareholders of the company were Mahmud Taib, Onn Mahmud, Jamilah Taib, Arip Mahmud, and Rahman.” It goes on to confirm that “Mahmud Taib, Onn Mahmud, Jamilah Taib, Arip Mahmud and Rahaman are still shareholders of Sakti Holdings” (the company into which the shares have been moved).

Sarawak Report can therefore verify that Sakti in the US, like Sakto in Canada, was set up and originally managed exclusively by the Taib family, which provided the original US shareholder investments. The involvement of Sean Murray, the current manager of Sakto and Sakti, began only after his marriage to Jamilah Taib and in fact he succeeded Rahman Taib as the Manager of Sakti only in 2006.

Sarawak Report therefore invites Murray to declare whether he currently holds any shareholdings in the companies he directs, or if he is merely an employee of his wife’s family.

Sarawak Report also invites the Taib family to explain how between 1983 and 1987 they were able to invest millions of dollars in the setting up of two property companies in Canada and the US whose combined portfolios are now worth at at least US$200 million. Of the original shareholders, Jamilah, Rahman and Mahmud (the children of Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud) were in their early 20s and at college at that time, while the other two shareholders, Arip and Onn, are the Chief Minister’s brothers. If the money was all coming from the two uncles, who are purported to be businessmen, then their generosity in including the Chief Minister’s children rather than their own in these shareholdings is surprising.

Time for some answers

Sarawak Report believes that the people of Sarawak deserve an immediate explanation of these facts from Chief Minister, Abdul Taib Mahmud. The chief minister should instantly reveal whether he holds or once held a stake in these companies in North America and if any of the money invested was provided by him. If Taib Mahmud is the beneficial owner of any of the shares in these companies the Sarawak taxpayer is entitled to know he obtained them. Malaysia’s law enforcers should be enquiring on their behalf.

The FBI should also be willing to issue a statement enlightening the public about the ownership of the building they occupy. As joint defendants in the California court case Wallyson’s and Sakti International admitted that the owner of Wallyson’s Incoporated is a company called Rodinmass, which is registered in the British Virgin Islands. It is inconceivable that the FBI did not check who the owners of Rodinmass were, given the sensitivity of this building. As the sole officer of Wallyson’s was Rahman Taib, Sarawak Report contends that the owners and shareholders of Rodinmass are, like with Sakti International, the Taib family. Our information is that Laila Taib was the majority shareholder of Rodinmass.

Taib’s wife, brothers and children are all linked to these North American companies. It is for Taib to now demonstrate that somehow he is not also linked as a beneficial owner of these lucrative properties.

Original article was published in Asia Sentinel on 5th July 2010

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