'US$30mil held on trust for Musa Aman'

Whistleblower website Sarawak Report has revealed more documents purportedly from the Hong Kong Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC), claiming that a Sabah lawyer has a Swiss bank account holding close to US$30 million on trust for Sabah Chief Minister Musa Aman.  

In its latest posting, the website claimed that evidence from the Hong Kong authorities shows that the account was opened in the lawyer's name with the Swiss Bank UBS in Hong Kong. This is allegedly operating under written instructions that the money is to be held on trust for Musa.

"A letter dated 25th May 2007, and now in the possession of the ICAC, stated the account should 'hold (the money) on trust for Aman,” the report states.

"Investigators noted that on 31st May 2008, that account contained US$29.6 million!”

The website based its allegation on a flow chart said to be compiled by the ICAC, showing a money trail leading from timber kickbacks to Musa's personal bank account with UBS in Zurich.

The chart tags the lawyer's bank account with the words 'Hold on trust for Aman'.

It illustrates how millions in Euro and in US, Hong Kong and Singapore dollars flowed from certain companies into accounts managed by Sabah timber trader Michael Chia and his nominees in Hong Kong, to a number of British Virgin Island companies and then to the lawyer's account.
        
The accumulated money was then passed into an account in Zurich in Musa's name, according to the chart.

The website claimed that it has copies of numerous bank statements that verify the information in the flow chart.

Musa has denied the allegations linking him with Chia, who was detained and charged with money laundering by trying to smuggle S$16 million into Malaysia.

Following Chia's arrest in Hong Kong, investigators got the ICAC to freeze his bank accounts for up to three years.

Sarawak Report also claimed that an instruction to forward US$22.4 million from the lawyer's account to Musa's account had been frozen together with the money when the ICAC investigators moved in.

However, the three-year statutory period on investigations expired late last year and the money is now believed to have been accessed by the account holders, it said.

The website blamed the collapse of the case and the subsequent release of all the money to Musa and his collaborators, on Attorney-General Abdul Gani Patail's(left) refusal to sign a cooperation agreement on the investigation.

It alleged that Abdul Gani, who has close family connections with Musa's family, has been protecting the latter and had blocked his office from pressing charges.

'Land status changed'

The website claimed that the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), which had received a copy of the ICAC investigation information and had uncovered much information on the Sabah timber kickbacks, was also blocked by Abdul Gani from acting against Musa.

Citing  extensive documents and insider information, Sarawak Reportsaid the money pouring into Chia's and the lawyer's accounts were kickbacks for timber concessions granted by Musa in his capacity as chairperson of the board of Yayasan Sabah.

The foundation controls some one million hectares of forest land entrusted to it to protect and preserve.

The website named several Malaysian timber traders, whose companies have received timber concessions, as the source of the kickbacks.

It further claimed that the Musa administration had changed the status of many protected areas and virgin forest into that of logging sites and handed these out to the timber companies.

"Our information is that kickbacks demanded by Musa’s agent Chia were on average RM2,500 per hectare of each concession. This amounts to billions of dollars in kickbacks given the huge areas that have been logged since Musa took power," it said.

The website, founded by investigative journalist Clare Rewcastle Brown, the sister-in-law of former British prime minister Gordon Brown, has vowed to release more documents on the illegal timber trade linked to Musa.