Deutsche Bank accused of concealing Taib’s secret US properties

By Bruno Manser Fonds

Sarawak top politician’s US property companies held through Deutsche Bank’s offshore branches in Jersey and Cayman Islands

Deutsche Bank, one of the world’s leading financial institutions, has been accused of concealing three US property companies held secretely by the family of Abdul Taib Mahmud, head of government of the Malaysian state of Sarawak and one of South-East Asia’s leading cleptocrats. The Jersey (Channel Islands) Companies Registry lists Deutsche Bank International Trust Co. Jersey and Cayman as sole shareholders of Sogo Holdings Limited, a company linked to the Taib family.

According to documents released by Ross Boyert, a former Taib aide found dead last month in a Los Angeles hotel room, Sogo Holdings has been used since 1996 by the Taib family to conceal its benefitial ownership of three US property companies in California and Washington state. The companies are Sakti International Corporation (San Francisco), W.A.Boylston Inc. (Seattle) and W.A.Everett Inc. (Seattle). The properties held through Sogo Holdings include two mansions donated to Taib by the Yaw family, the owners of one of Malaysia’s largest logging coporations, Samling Global.

Deutsche Bank has repeatedly conducted important business transactions for the Sarawak state government. In 2005, Deutsche Bank was the sole bookrunner for the 600 million US$ listing of Sarawak International corporated in Labuan, Malaysia’s offshore financial center. Before December 2004, Deutsche Bank arrranged a 135 million US $ loan for the Sarawak Economic Development Corporation (SEDC), a state-owned body controlled by Taib Mahmud.

Taib Mahmud has been Chief Minister, Finance Minister and State Planning and Natural Resources Minister of the Malaysian state of Sarawak uninterruptedly since 1981. During his 29 years in power, most of Sarawak’s tropical rainforests have been logged which entailed severe environmental damage and the destruction of the livelihood of numerous native communities.

The Bruno Manser Fonds condemns the Deutsche Bank’s role in concealing the Taib family’s secret overseas assets and asks Deutsche Bank to cut all its ties with the Taibs.

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Sources: Sarawak Report; Jersey Companies Registry; San Francisco Superior Courts, Ross J. Boyert vs Sakti International Corporation, 6 February 2007; Labuan International Financial Exchange News