Pandora Papers Leaked : Malaysia

Ranked 5th In The World For RM

1.8 Trillion Illicit Outflow – Najib ,
Muhyiddin & Daim Among 1,500
Who Own Offshore Companies
Account
By admin October 4, 2021

Malaysiakini reported that according to the

documents, which were sighted by them, the
companies and trusts held by Daim’s children,
wife or known business associates jointly
were worth at least £25 million (about RM141
million)
ILLICIT financial flows from Malaysia have been growing rapidly for
over a decade. By encouraging Malaysian corporations to invest
abroad, “legitimate outflows” have also been growing rapidly with
financial liberalisation.

It is generally presumed that illicit financial flows are related to tax

evasion and corruption. Many international financial centres are
involved in intense competition to attract customers by offering
lower tax rates and banking secrecy. This has, in turn, forced many
governments to lower direct taxes, not only on income, but
especially on wealth.
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 With the official ambition for Malaysia to become another global
financial centre in the face of premature deindustrialisation, the
authorities have been promoting financial liberalisation, exposing the
country to greater macro-financial risk.

Such financial flows are largely handled by financial service

providers, accounting firms, law offices, and companies with
transnational activities, often involving investments in real estate and
other assets abroad worth billions. Besides governments enabling
facilities and regulations, such firms and shell companies have been
helping to accelerate these trends.

Illicit financial flows

A Global Financial Integrity (GFI) report has estimated that Malaysia

lost up to about US$431 billion (RM1.8 trillion) in illicit outflows
between 2005 and 2014. The Washington DC based think tank
estimated illicit financial outflows from Malaysia at around 6-10% of
the value of Malaysia’s trade of US$443.2 billion for the year 2014,
i.e. between US$26.6 billion and US$44.3 billion.

Malaysia was fifth among all countries for illicit capital flight, after
China, Russia, Mexico and India, but took first spot on a per capita
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 basis. Malaysia accounted for around 6% of total illicit flows out of all
developing countries.
In 2014, Malaysia’s illicit financial outflows were between 6-10% of
its total trade while such inflows were 7-13% of the country’s total
trade of US$443.21 billion. About 87% of illicit financial outflows
during 2005-2014 was attributed to fraudulent “trade mis-invoicing”.

Politicians among 1,500 who own offshore

companies
According to Malaysiakini , Top Malaysian politicians, their family
members and well-heeled associates are among those owning
secretive offshore companies in Singapore and the British Virgin
Islands, according to an explosive cache of leaked documents.

They include former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s son

Mirzan, Federal Territories and Urban Well-being Minister Raja Nong
Chik Zainal Abidin and Michael Chia, the alleged ‘bagman’ for Sabah
Chief Minister Musa Aman.

The files, which were obtained by Washington-based International

Confederation of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and examined by
Malaysiakini , show more than 1,500 Malaysians owning offshore
companies in Singapore – dubbed as the new Switzerland – as well
as the British Virgin Islands (BVI), an international tax haven.

The ICIJ list comprises a curious mix of Forbes-listed tycoons,

parliamentarians, retired politicians, civil servants and their spouses,
members of royal families, famous and infamous businesspeople,
underworld kingpins and even former beauty queens.

“Years of experience with businesses and governments in the

developing world have taught us that the decision to bring illicit flows
into a particular developing country often marks only the first phase
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 of a strategy to subsequently move funds out of the country.
Together, illicit inflows and outflows sap the crucial financial
resources needed to reach the Sustainable Development Goals,” he
added, referring to the United Nations’ goals to end poverty and to
protect the planet.

According to the GFI report, illicit financial inflows into Malaysia were
estimated at between 8 and 13 per cent of the US$3.6 trillion total
trade from 2005 to 2014, which translated to between about
US$287 billion and US$466 billion.

In 2014, the last year which comprehensive data was available, illicit
financial outflows from Malaysia were estimated at between 6 and 10
per cent of total trade of about US$443.2 billion, or between about
US$26.6 billion and US$44.3 billion.

Illicit financial inflows were estimated at between 7 and 13 per cent

of total trade that year, or between about US$31 billion and US$57.6
billion.

According to the study on illegal financial flows from developing and

emerging economies, an average of 87 per cent of illicit financial
outflows over the 2005-2014 period were due to the fraudulent
misinvoicing of trade.

“Total illicit financial flows (outflows plus inflows) grew at an average

rate of between 8.5 percent and 10.1 per cent a year over the ten-
year period.

“In 2014, outflows are estimated to have ranged between $620

billion and $970 billion, while inflows ranged between $1.4 trillion and
$2.5 trillion,” said the GFI report.

GFI recommended that governments establish public registries of

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 verified beneficial ownership information on all legal entities and said
all banks should know the true beneficial owners of any account.

Raja Nong Chik

According to the leaked documents, Raja Nong Chik, who is Lembah

Pantai Umno chief, is a prominent shareholder and director of RZA
International Corporation, a British Virgin Islands entity incorporated
on Aug 21, 2007, through Singapore.

The company is a mirror of Malaysian entity Kumpulan RZA Sdn Bhd,

a 1979-founded company dealing in real estate and equities
investment.

Raja Nong Chik set up the offshore entity with his father, Raja Zainal
Abidin Raja Tachik, a number of his sisters and brothers as well as
other family members. Most of them are also shareholders and
directors of Kumpulan RZA Sdn Bhd.

Prior to his senatorship, Raja Nong Chik was a corporate figure who
founded and managed an engineering firm for 20 years.

Contacted by Malaysiakini , the minister confirmed that RZA

International was set up by his father, who will turn 96 this year, “for
the purpose of holding legitimate offshore investments for the
family”.

However, the minister did not elaborate on the offshore investments

made by his family through the company. He added that RZA
International was de-registered in 2009.

“The company was not used to obscure activities of Kumpulan RZA

Sdn Bhd, and neither was it used to circumvent taxes or hide
transactions overseas,” Raja Nong Chik said in an email to
:
 Malaysiakini .

Mirzan Mahathir

Mirzan Mahathir, the eldest son of Mahathir, is also among those the
ICIJ list as director and shareholder of three off-shore companies.

Mirzan’s major commercial vehicle in Malaysia is Crescent Capital

Sdn Bhd, an investment holding and independent strategic and
financial advisory firm. He is the company’s chairperson and chief
executive officer.

Forbes-listed entrepreneur, Mirzan holds a non-executive director

position in Philippines-based San Miguel group, which has raised
eyebrows in Muslim-majority Malaysia, as beer brewery is a core
businesses of San Miguel.

One of Mirzan’s offshore entities is called Crescent Energy Ltd, a

Labuan offshore company incorporated on Dec 16, 2003, originally
named Mainline Ltd and with an authorised share capital of
US$12,000 (RM37,000).

Mirzan became a director and main shareholder six days later and
the company was renamed Crescent Energy on May 16, 2008.

Another Labuan offshore company, Utara Capital Ltd, in which

Mirzan is named as sole shareholder and director, was incorporated
on Aug 19, 1997, with an authorised share capital of US$15,000.

The third company, Al Sadd Investments Pte Ltd. was also a Labuan
offshore company. It was established on May 14, 2009, with an
authorised share capital of US$12,000. Mirzan is listed as the sole
shareholder and director of Al Sadd Investments.

Malaysiakini has approached Mirzan’s office for his comments on

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 these offshore companies, but his aide said he was unable to
respond on the matter as he was out of town.

Musa Aman – The Sabah ‘bagman’

Another prominent personality on the list is Chia Tien Foh, who is

better known as Michael Chia – the shadowy business tycoon
allegedly linked to Sabah Chief Minister Musa Aman.

Chia, too, has three offshore companies in which he is listed as either

as director or shareholder. One of them was CTF International Ltd ,
with ‘CTF’ seen as the initials of Chia’s full name. It was incorporated
on April 18, 2006, in the British Virgin Islands.

CTF International gained notoriety when it was named by

whistleblower website Sarawak Report of being a conduit in
channelling millions of ringgit to a Hong Kong account allegedly
linked to Musa.

However, Musa ( left ), has denied any business ties with Chia ( right
).

CTF was de-registered in 2008. The other two offshore companies

owned by Chia are Ravenswood Development Ltd and Ark Capital
Technologies Ltd.

In addition, Chia’s wife Yap Loo Mien and another woman, who is
alleged to be his mistress, Yap Siaw Lin, also appear on the list as
key shareholders in three separate British Virgin Islands entities.

Loo Mien owned two companies – Perfect Minds Incorporated and

StarWater Corporation – while Siaw Lin owned Splendor Success
Worldwide Ltd.

Malaysiakini contacted Chia through the address stated in his

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 company registration documents for comments, but there has been
no response.

Sons of top Malaysian politicians listed in

Panama Papers
Najib Son

According to Malaysiakini , Najib Abdul Razak’s son Nazifuddin Najib

caught flak after he was exposed by the International Consortium of
Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) as having an offshore account in the
British Virgin Islands. But he is not the only Malaysian politician’s son
on the list.

A check by Malaysiakini on the records from Panama law firm

Mossack Fonseca that was leaked to the ICIJ, showed the sons of
Foreign Minister Anifah Aman, former prime minister Dr Mahathir
Mohamad and former deputy prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin on the
list as well.

Mossack Fonseca is a law firm that provides services for the setting
up of entities in tax havens where privacy laws are so stringent that
the accounts established are virtually untraceable.

Documents leaked from Mossack Fonseca are now referred to as the

‘Panama Papers’.

While offshore accounts raise questions of tax evasion, it does not

necessarily indicate that illegal activities were committed using these
accounts, nor is it illegal to help set up or own offshore firms.

Muhyiddin Son – Fakhri Yassin Mahiaddin

Muhyiddin’s eldest son Fakhri Yassin is linked to two offshore

entities, both set up in the British Virgin Islands, Malaysiakini’s
:
 checks showed.

Now head of property development firm Thriven, Fakhri set up Akila

Way Limited BVI on March 11, 2004, when he was 28.

This was five years after he started work as an investment analyst at

Hwang DBS – his first job after graduating with a business
economics degree from the University of London.

Akila Way was set up through WBC Limited, a secretarial service firm
based in Wan Chai, Hong Kong, which provides services, including
addresses for setting up firms overseas.

Fakhri looked towards Panama again 10 years later, setting up

Farsight Plan Investments Ltd on June 4, 2011.

There is little information on what he had used these two offshore

firms for, or whether the companies are linked to Fakhri’s purchase of
a majority stake in Mulpha Land for RM2 million, cash, in March 2015.

Mulpha Land was renamed Thriven, and the 40-year-old father of

two was then appointed executive chairperson of the public-listed
firm.

Fakhri owns 33.86 percent of Thriven and is director of Singapore-

based Health Management International’s two Malaysian hospitals
(Mahkota Medical Centre and Regency Specialist Hospital).

He is also director of Eden Inc Bhd, a public-listed catering firm

founded by his father-in-law.

Malaysiakini contacted Fakhri for his comment, via Thriven and

through his father’s press secretary. He did not respond.

Mahathir Son – Mirzan Mahathir

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 This is not the first time the eldest son of Mahathir has been
reported as owning an offshore entity.

In 2013, Malaysiakini reported that an offshore leak revealed that

Mirzan he owned Crescent Energy Ltd, Utara Capital Ltd and Al Saad
Investments Pte Ltd, all based in Labuan.

In the Panama Papers, Mirzan, who was briefly a director of

Philippines’ San Miguel Corp until April 2010, is listed as having
registered a firm in the British Virgin Islands on March 8, 2002.

However, the firm – Sergio International Ltd – was deemed inactive

on Nov 1, 2006, and struck off that year.

Mirzan, who holds an MBA from top business school Wharton, is now
CEO of Crescent Capital, an investment holding and financial
advisory company.

‘All very strange’

Malaysiakini contacted Mirzan via Crescent Capital, where someone

who identified herself as a director in the company replied on his
behalf.

“We can confirm definitely and categorically that Mirzan is not

involved nor linked to Sergio International Ltd nor is the offshore
entity related to the Crescent Group of Companies.

“I am interested to know how Mirzan was listed as a

director/shareholder of Sergio when he did not give his consent,” the
director said.

The director, who declined to be named, claimed that Crescent did

not even know of Sergio’s existence until it was contacted by
Malaysiakini.
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 However, she revealed that Mirzan informed her that the other two
listed shareholders of Sergio did approach him between the years
2000 and 2002 to start a landscape business.

“But we do not have any records of this landscape business –

whether it materialised or not, we do not know. All very strange,” she
said.

Anifah Aman Son – Ahmad Zachry Anifah

The youngest of the four politicians’ sons whose names appeared in

the Panama Papers is Ahmad Zachry, the son of Foreign Minister and
Sabah Umno strongman Anifah Aman.

The 32-year-old set up Green Energy Management Solutions Ltd in

the British Virgin Islands on May 13, 2010, with one Pang Su Yen of
Kuala Lumpur.

Zachry’s address listed in the registration documents of the firm is a

post office box in Beaufort, Sabah. The firm was shut down, due to
inactivity, in 2013.

There is scant information about Zachry in the public domain, except

that he is the owner of Powersport Events Sdn Bhd.

At 24, Zachry and his firm Powersport Events organised the

powerboat race, the F2000 World Race in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah.

Two years later, Zachry was mentioned as owning 0.9 percent of

plastics manufacturer SLP Resources. His brother Ahmad Firdauss
also owned a similar chunk. This is the same year the offshore firm
was set up.

Pandora Papers shed light on offshore assets

linked to Daim, who insists nothing shady
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 about them
The Pandora Papers — documents obtained by the International
Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) on tax havens
preferred by the rich and powerful — have shed some light on
business associates of former finance minister Tun Daim Zainuddin.

Malaysiakini reported that according to the documents, which were

sighted by them, the companies and trusts held by Daim’s children,
wife or known business associates jointly were worth at least £25
million (about RM141 million).

Daim’s sons, Muhammed Amir Zainuddin Daim and Muhammed

Amin Zainuddin Daim were named owners of a British Virgin Islands
(BVI) firm Newton Invest & Finance Limited (BVI) in 2007 when they
were nine and 12 respectively.

By 2017, when the brothers were in their early 20s, they were owners
of several offshore firms set up in tax havens, including Splendid
International Ltd (BVI) which held London properties worth £12
million (about RM65 million at 2017 exchange rates).

Besides the two BVI firms, the brothers and their mother are also
shareholders in several other offshore companies which hold
properties in London.

Meanwhile, the documents also mentioned Josephine Premla

Sevaretnam, a former lawyer and deputy public prosecutor who
served alongside Daim in the service before holding key positions in
his various ventures which includes the Swiss bank ICB Banking
Group, in which Daim owns 74.4 per cent when it was listed on the
London Alternative Investment Market in 2007.

Josephine was also listed as Newton Invest & Finance Limited (BVI)
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 and Splendid International Ltd’s (BVI) business manager, based in
Bryanston Square, London.

Daim’s daughter Aslinda Daim-Pan, who took on her husband’s

surname, is also a director of the British company 8 Bryanston
Square Freehold Limited, according to the UK’s Companies House.

In a reply to Malaysiakini, Daim called out what he believes is the

news portal’s “unending obsession” with him.

He said while not all the trusts listed belonged to him, but all his
dealings are legitimate and further stated that trusts are part of
“estate planning” as he has retired from business.

As such, he contended that the reporting, which implies wrongdoing

by innuendo and speculation, is “unprofessional” and an attempt to
discredit him.

The former minister also said he has always paid taxes due for all
investments and properties in any jurisdiction and that he was a
“successful and wealthy” businessperson in his own right.

“I have been in business since the 1960s. It has been more than 60
years, a half-century since.

“I think some recognition should be given to a Malaysian who has

successfully carried the flag for Malaysian businesses here and
worldwide,” he was reported as saying.

The Pandora Papers is the largest trove of leaked offshore data in

history with documents coming from offshore service providers
operating in Anguilla, Belize, Singapore, Switzerland, Panama,
Barbados, Cyprus, Dubai, the Bahamas, the British Virgin Islands,
Seychelles and Vietnam.
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 The files were leaked to the ICIJ, which has not revealed its source.
The ICIJ gave 600 journalists around the world remote access to the
leaked data.

Source : Malay Mail

‘Pandora Papers’ expose leaders’ offshore millions

Pandora Papers: An offshore data tsunami

The Pandora Papers’s 11.9 million records arrived from 14 different

offshore services firms in a jumble of files and formats – even ink-
on-paper – presenting a massive data-management challenge

A 2.94 terabyte data trove exposes the offshore secrets of wealthy

elites from more than 200 countries and territories. These are people
who use tax and secrecy havens to buy property and hide assets;
many avoid taxes and worse. They include more than 330 politicians
and 130 Forbes billionaires, as well as celebrities, fraudsters, drug
dealers, royal family members and leaders of religious groups around
the world.

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists spent more

than a year structuring, researching and analyzing the more than 11.9
million records in the Pandora Papers leak. The task involved three
main elements: journalists, technology and time.

What is the Pandora Papers?

The Pandora Papers investigation is the world’s largest-ever

journalistic collaboration, involving more than 600 journalists from
150 media outlets in 117 countries.

The investigation is based on a leak of confidential records of 14

offshore service providers that give professional services to wealthy
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 individuals and corporations seeking to incorporate shell companies,
trusts, foundations and other entities in low- or no-tax jurisdictions.
The entities enable owners to conceal their identities from the public
and sometimes from regulators. Often, the providers help them open
bank accounts in countries with light financial regulation.

The 2.94 terabytes of data, leaked to ICIJ and shared with media
partners around the world, arrived in various formats: as documents,
images, emails, spreadsheets, and more.

The records include an unprecedented amount of information on so-

called beneficial owners of entities registered in the British Virgin
Islands, Seychelles, Hong Kong, Belize, Panama, South Dakota and
other secrecy jurisdictions. They also contain information on the
shareholders, directors and officers. In addition to the rich, the
famous and the infamous, those exposed by the leak include people
who don’t represent a public interest and who don’t appear in our
reporting, such as small business owners, doctors and other, usually
affluent, individuals away from the public spotlight.

While some of the files date to the 1970s, most of those reviewed by
ICIJ were created between 1996 and 2020. They cover a wide range
of matters: the creation of shell companies, foundations and trusts;
the use of such entities to purchase real estate, yachts, jets and life
insurance; their use to make investments and to move money
between bank accounts; estate planning and other inheritance
issues; and the avoidance of taxes through complex financial
schemes. Some documents are tied to financial crimes, including
money laundering.

What’s in the Pandora Papers?

The more than 330 politicians exposed by the leak were from more
than 90 countries and territories. They used entities in secrecy
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 jurisdictions to buy real estate, hold money in trust, own other
companies and other assets, sometimes anonymously.

The Pandora Papers investigation also reveals how banks and law
firms work closely with offshore service providers to design complex
corporate structures. The files show that providers don’t always
know their customers, despite their legal obligation to take care not
to do business with people who engage in questionable dealings.

The investigation also reports on how U.S. trust providers have taken
advantage of some states’ laws that promote secrecy and help
wealthy overseas clients hide wealth to avoid taxes in their home
countries.

What form did the data come in?

The 11.9 million-plus records were largely unstructured. More than
half of the files (6.4 million) were text documents, including more
than 4 million PDFs, some of which ran to more than 10,000-pages.
The documents included passports, bank statements, tax
declarations, company incorporation records, real estate contracts
and due diligence questionnaires. There were also more than 4.1
million images and emails in the leak.

Spreadsheets made up 4% of the documents, or more than 467,000.

The records also included slide shows and audio and video files.

What’s different about this leak from others we’ve heard about?

The Pandora Papers information – the 2.94 terabytes in more than

11.9 million records – comes from 14 providers that offer services in
at least 38 jurisdictions. The 2016 Panama Papers investigation was
based on 2.6 terabytes of data in 11.5 million documents from a
single provider, the now-defunct Mossack Fonseca law firm. The
2017 Paradise Papers investigation was based on a leak of 1.4
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 terabytes in more than 13.4 million files from one offshore law firm,
Appleby, as well as Asiaciti Trust, a Singapore-based provider, and
government corporate registries in 19 secrecy jurisdictions.

The Pandora Papers presented a new challenge because the 14

providers had different ways of presenting and organizing
information. Some organized documents by client, some by various
offices, and others had no apparent system at all. A single document
sometimes contained years’ worth of emails and attachments. Some
providers digitized their records and structured them in
spreadsheets; others kept paper files that were scanned. Some PDFs
contained spreadsheets that had to be reconstructed into
spreadsheets. The documents arrived in English, Spanish, Russian,
French, Arabic, Korean and other languages, requiring extensive
coordination among ICIJ partners.

The Pandora Papers gathered information on more than 27,000

companies and 29,000 so-called ultimate beneficial owners from 11
of the providers, or more than twice the number of beneficial owners
identified in the Panama Papers.

The Pandora Papers connected offshore activity to more than twice

as many politicians and public officials as did the Panama Papers.
And the Pandora Papers’ more than 330 politicians and public
officials, from more than 90 countries and territories , included 35
current and former country leaders.

Source : IICJ
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