Is Singapore revealing all to MACC’s Daim-linked probe on CLOB’s US$4b (RM18.4b)?

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Is Singapore revealing all to MACC’s Daim-linked probe on CLOB’s US$4b (RM18.4b)?

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 27, 2024: Is the whole truth being revealed by Channel News Asia (CNA) Singapore on former finance minister (twice appointed by the racist Dr Mahathir Mohamed) Daim Zainuddin?

Where did CLOB companies’ frozen US$4 billion(RM18.4 billion) disappear to?

Is the Singapore Government revealing all the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission which is probing Daim:

The following Jan 16 CNA news report is being shared in social media again:

 

Malaysia’s anti-graft probe against Daim expands to Singapore’s defunct Malaysian stock-trading platform CLOB

The probe into Mr Daim’s financial affairs is now spreading to corporate personalities believed to be his business proxies and deals that he personally administered over when in government, including the closure of the over-the-counter stock-trading system in Singapore called CLOB in 1998.

 

Former Malaysian finance minister Daim Zainuddin. (File photo: AFP/Andy Wong)

16 Jan 2024 08:26PM(Updated: 16 Jan 2024 09:09PM)

KUALA LUMPUR: Embattled former Malaysian finance minister Daim Zainuddin has been taken ill at a time when the investigation by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) is spreading beyond his family’s financial holdings and into the affairs of his business proxies, high-profile corporate personalities and a large cross-border corporate exercise with Singapore in the late 1990s. 

Meanwhile, a separate fight is shaping up in the Malaysian courts.

The High Court on Tuesday (Jan 16) heard arguments from Mr Daim’s lawyers and government prosecutors over a suit filed by the former politician’s family for an order to compel the agency to halt all investigations against them, lift the seizure of Ilham Tower and return all documents and material that have been seized during the course of the probe.

The scene outside the Ilham Tower in Kuala Lumpur on Dec 22, 2023 after the Malaysian Anti-Coruption Commission (MACC) confirmed that they had conducted a raid at the building. (Photo: CNA/Fadza Ishak)

Mr Tommy Thomas, Malaysia’s former Attorney General who is representing Mr Daim’s family, argued that the former politician was being subjected to an investigation under laws that were formulated after he had retired as a public official.  

“Furthermore, Daim is already 85, and he may not remember events of 25 to 26 years ago, and this is unfair and may prejudice him,” Mr Thomas said.

Senior federal counsel Liew Horng Bin protested, arguing that there was no statutory limitation for the investigating authorities to investigate a purported crime and a ruling in Mr Daim’s favour would open the flood gates to halt other ongoing investigations. 

Judge Wan Ahmad Farid Wan Salleh said that he would deliver his decision on the suit on March 4.

CNA understands that the frail and diminutive Mr Daim, who suffers from kidney-related ailments, was admitted last Friday into a private hospital in the outskirts of the capital Kuala Lumpur.

It took place just hours before he was scheduled to meet with MACC investigators to record a statement on the ongoing anti-graft probe, according to three senior government officials who spoke to CNA on condition of anonymity.

The sources noted that the MACC investigators had requested to record the statement from Mr Daim at the Assunta Hospital in Petaling Jaya since Saturday, but his medical team insisted that he was in no position to be questioned.

The situation remains unchanged on Tuesday, according to the sources. Executives from Mr Daim’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

The MACC’s move against Mr Daim is part of an anti-money laundering investigation that began in late May last year into a controversial corporate transaction valued at RM2.3 billion (US$500 million) in November 1997.

It involved publicly listed Renong Bhd and United Engineers Malaysia Bhd (UEM), two entities that were former cornerstones of the business empire tied to the one-time ruling United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) party. 

Soon after the probe began, the MACC froze the bank accounts of companies connected to Mr Daim’s business and ordered him to declare his financial holdings and other assets belonging to members of his family. 

COURT BATTLE

Mr Daim has repeatedly rebuffed those demands and the faceoff took a nasty turn on Dec 21 when the anti-graft agency seized the multi-million dollar Ilham Tower, a prime commercial building in the capital Kuala Lumpur owned by Mr Daim’s family.

Since the seizure, the MACC has been turning up the heat. 

The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) in Putrajaya on Jan 3, 2024. (Photo: CNA/Fadza Ishak)

Government sources close to the situation said that the probe has moved into the affairs of Mr Daim’s key nominees and associates who are representatives in a stable of companies that the MACC believes is linked to the former politician. 

They include businessman Mohd Nasir Ali, Lutfiah Ismail and lawyer Josephine Premela Sivaratnam, who together are representatives on listed entities such as investment holding concern Kuala Lumpur City Corp Bhd, property developer Plenitude Bhd and Langkah Bahagia Bhd, which has investments in the banking sector.

Easily one of the country’s wealthiest and most politically influential personalities in the country, Mr Daim has been pivotal in shaping the national economy and the country’s corporate sector.

Now, the often controversial role that Mr Daim played in organising and orchestrating developments from behind the scenes when he was in government is coming under the radar of the MACC.

THE CLOB AFFAIR

Government official close to the situation told CNA that of particular interest are the corporate transactions that were widely seen as forced divestments by businessmen caught on the wrong side of the political divide and the closure in September 1998 of the so-called Central Limit Order Book, or CLOB, an informal trading platform that offered investors the trading in the stocks of a large selection of Malaysian listed companies in the Singapore bourse.

Singapore set up CLOB in 1990 after Kuala Lumpur banned the trading of stocks in Malaysian companies on the Singapore exchange. 

Malaysia grudgingly tolerated the CLOB platform because stockbrokers based in Singapore took some of the load from their overburdened Malaysia counterparts who could not cope with the deluge of business as the Kuala Lumpur stock exchange exploded during the boom years of the 1990s.

Then came the regional financial crisis and the political maelstrom with the open warfare between former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad and his then-deputy and current premier Anwar Ibrahim.

Sharp differences between the two politicians on how to respond to the financial crisis morphed into a bitter political clash that resulted in Mr Anwar's sacking from government and imprisonment on corruption and sexual misconduct charges.

In September 1998, just days before Mr Anwar was sacked from government, Malaysia imposed capital controls, set the local currency at a fixed rate of 3.80 ringgit against the US dollar, and banned the trading of Malaysian stocks outside the country.

The move effectively froze billions of dollars worth of stock in 112 Malaysian companies that were trading on CLOB. 

Mr Daim, who was brought back to the government following Mr Anwar’s sacking and reappointed at finance portfolio, quickly approved a controversial plan by a close associate, Singapore businessman Akhbar Khan, to operate a lucrative concession to manage the return of the frozen equities, which at the time was valued at roughly US$4 billion.

CORPORATE SHAKEDOWN

The CLOB affair, which came under heavy public criticism, strained Malaysia’s bilateral relations with Singapore and coincided with one of the most extensive purges in corporate Malaysia, where business and politics have long intertwined.

Business personalities and groups linked to the deposed Mr Anwar were forced to pare down their controlling stakes in their companies in favour of parties linked to Dr Mahathir and Mr Daim, who at the time was both finance minister and also treasurer of the then-ruling UMNO party.

The most high-profile corporate shakedown at the time, which government sources noted is now part of the ongoing probe on Mr Daim, involved the change of control in early 1999 of one of the country’s largest conglomerates, Multi-Purpose Holdings Bhd (MPHB).

Tycoon Lim Thian Kiat was forced to sell his controlling interest in MPHB, which had stakes in banking, property, gaming and shipping, to a group of businessmen led by Mr Akhbar and entrepreneur Chan Chin Cheung, who was at the time a director in UMNO-controlled Renong Bhd.

The deal went through and it subsequently led to the carving up of the MPHB empire to groups tied to Mr Daim, with Mr Akbar securing control of Bandar Raya Developments Bhd (BRDB), which at the time ranked as one of the country’s most prestigious property developers.

Government officials noted that the ongoing investigations are zooming into Mr Daim’s alleged role in Mr Lim’s forced divestment at MPHB and how Mr Akhbar benefitted from the CLOB affair are in their initial stages.

Both businessmen are expected to provide statements to the MACC in the coming days.

Source: CNA/lz(kb)