Canadian Govt Aware of Malaysian Money-Laundering Allegation

Prime Minister Stephen Harper alerted over massive Taib family-linked property holdings in Ottawa – Canadian police commends the Bruno Manser Fund but refuses to confirm or deny a criminal investigation

(OTTAWA, CANADA) Only days after the German government announced a money-laundering investigation into Deutsche Bank over its close ties with the Malaysian Taib family, Sarawak potentate Abdul Taib Mahmud ("Taib") might be facing difficulties from yet another Western government.

In July 2011, the Swiss Bruno Manser Fund alerted the Canadian government about suspected money laundering activities of the Taib-family-founded Sakto Corporation, an Ottawa-based property developer. Sakto owns and administers properties in Ottawa, Ontario, estimated to be worth well over 100 million US dollars. Sakto is also the center of a Taib family-linked property empire with significant holdings in the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia.

In a letter sent to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the Bruno Manser Fund asked the Canadian government to launch a formal investigation into Sakto and various Taib family members over suspected money laundering. A copy of the letter was sent to a number of cabinet ministers, Canada’s money-laundering authority, FINTRAC, and William Elliott, the Commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

The Bruno Manser Fund can confirm that our letter aroused great interest amongst the Canadian government and was brought to the attention of several top politicians, including the Minister of Finance, James M. Flaherty, the person who is ultimately responsible for money-laundering issues.

Department of Justice: Money launderers will be "prosecuted and incarcerated"

"You may be interested to know that the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police)’s Integrated Market Enforcement Team is a group of highly acknowledged specialized investigators that are dedicated to ensuring that those who commit serious capital markets fraud offences will be discovered, investigated, prosecuted, and incarcerated in an effective and timely fashion", a top executive of Canada’s Department of Justice told the Bruno Manser Fund.

However, Canada’s federal police refused to disclose if Sakto Corporation and the Taib family were under investigation: "The RCMP does not normally confirm or deny the existence of any criminal investigation", Chief Superintendent and Criminal Operations Officer Serge Therriault from the RCMP’s "A" Division stated to the BMF. The "A" Division is an international anti-corruption unit that focuses on detecting and investigating bribery, embezzlement and money laundering.

"These types of investigations are conducted confidentially to protect evidence, international partnerships and reputations. A public statement is not issued identifying suspects until the matter is one of public record."

The high-ranking Canadian police officer added that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) "respects the efforts the Bruno Manser Fund has undertaken with regard to the depletion of tropical forests and the plight of indigenous peoples".

Sakto Corporation from the start a Taib family outfit

Sakto was founded in 1983 by Onn Mahmud, the brother of Sarawak Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud, together with two of Taib’s college-aged children. Today, Sakto is run by Taib’s daughter, Jamilah Taib, and his Canadian son-in-law, Sean Murray. Due to a peculiarity of the Canadian business legislation, the shareholders of Sakto are allowed to remain anonymous, but it is heavily suspected that the corporation is entirely controlled by the Taib family.

Sakto’s sole directors are Jamilah Taib and Sean Murray, who got married in 1987 after having met during Jamilah’s studies of business management at Ottawa’s Carleton University. In 2001, Jamilah and Sean took control of the UK-based Ridgeford Properties that had previously been held by a British Virgin Island-based offshore outfit. Ridgeford Properties, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Jamilah and Sean’s City Gate International Corporation, holds luxury properties in central London worth dozens of millions of pound sterling.

In 2006, Jamilah and Sean added the California-based Sakti International Corporation and the Washington-based Wallysons Inc, which owns the FBI building in Seattle, to their property empire. Those companies had previously been administered by US national Ross Boyert who died last year under worrying circumstances.
Boyert, who had been sacked by the Taibs and outmaneuvered by Taib’s son-in-law, Sean Murray, claimed he had been systematically harassed ever since he had filed a legal case against his former employers.

Weeks before his death, an unusual case of suspected suicide, Boyert handed a number of sensitive documents to the whistleblower website Sarawak Report. The documents showed that the Sarawak Chief Minister, Abdul Taib Mahmud, was the ultimate beneficial owner of Sakti International and that Taib’s relatives were holding the majority of shares on behalf of the corrupt politician himself.

Corruption is the core element of the Taib family business strategy

Sakto director Jamilah Taib is also a major shareholder of Cahya Mata Sarawak (CMS), Sarawak’s largest private company, which has made corruption the core element of its business strategy. CMS, which is controlled by the Taib family, lives to a large extent off non-publicly tendered government contracts, which are being awarded by the Sarawak Chief Minister to his family members.

Deutsche Bank’s close business ties with CMS may have contributed to the German government’s decision to investigate the bank’s ties with the Taib family from a money-laundering legislation compliance perspective.

In June 2011, the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission MACC announced that the Sarawak Chief Minister, Abdul Taib Mahmud, was under investigation for corruption. However, the Malaysian probe has hitherto failed to bear tangible results and observers are suspecting that the MACC probe might rather be a window-dressing exercise than a serious attempt to investigate and prosecute Taib for his numerous criminal activities.

Both Canada and Malaysia are signatories to the UN convention against corruption that obliges its parties to efficiently combat corruption of public officials and to enable the recovery of potentates' embezzled public funds.

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