The House at the heart of Mara scandal

He was a former suburban footballer who had helped manage a jail for young offenders before starting his own window and door company in Melbourne. Like all fathers, he doted on his son, Cooper. During the summer break, the young man asked the father for some money to travel for an inter-state football carnival. John Bond had nothing to give – he was broke.

All his money had been used to supply and install windows and doors in a downtown building in Melbourne in 2013. Having worked on the development to almost completion, his company, Trubuilt Properties, did not get paid. Neither did his workers and dozens of other contractors. They were left in the lurch and the owners of the building slipped away to Malaysia.

Bond, having to borrow from his parents to send Cooper for the carnival in Darwin, was a bitter man after his whole business collapsed. With other creditors, he went to the Victorian Supreme Court, and sought the appointment of Andrew Yeo, a senior partner in Pitcher Partners, who assigned the case to a bright young man, Odie Henzel.

Infuriated at Bond’s treatment, Henzel joined the mission to unearth the secrets of the property – Dudley House, which is now become one of the three buildings in what is now known as the “Mara Scandal.”

Three Malaysians –Azizi Yom Ahmad, Abdul Ghani Yusof and Dennis Teen together with Australians, Peter Mills and Chris Dimitriou, had set up a company – Wanissa Properties – to sell Dudley House to Mara for A$17.8 million but inflate the price to A$22.5 million.

Court records show that Henzel discovered an email dated March 2013 in which Mara agreed to buy Dudley House – to be used as a hostel for Malaysian students – and a payment of “AUS$4,785,000 in the form of introduction and consultancy fees” would be wired to a mysterious Singapore shelf company.

Nick McKenzie is an award-winning investigative journalist working for The Ageand produces the Four Corners documentary programme for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

He caught the whiff as he had already been working on stories of foreign buyers and “dirty money” being used to push up property prices in the state of Victoria where Melbourne is located. McKenzie started his own investigations only to discover a trail of “dirty dealings” by Malaysian parties.

He roped me in and we worked on the scandal, unearthing a trail of deceit, money laundering and fraud. On June 22 last year, The Age and The Sun broke the story simultaneously. This was followed by raids carried out in both countries but to date, no one has been prosecuted.

In April, Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) deputy chief commissioner Azam Baki said 24 witnesses had been called up and officers visited seven premises, including a law firm, the offices of both Mara Inc and an appraiser and their associates.

“We need more time to complete this case as it involves another country. We have put in a request for mutual legal assistance with the Australian Attorney-General’s office but have yet to receive any response,” he was quoted as saying.

Scam invoices

While the criminal aspect of the case may have ground to a halt, the case has not ended up in the back burner. In December, Pitcher Partners as liquidators of Trubuilt filed a civil suit against Azizi and Abdul Ghani.

(The liquidator had previously sued Teen, a Malaysian with Australian permanent resident status. The case was settled out of court with undisclosed sums being paid. Records show that Teen was engaged by the Azizi and Yusuf to act as their agent.)

They are seeking about A$3 million from the duo for payments due for the renovation work carried out on the building. Yeo alleges that the “two Datos” (as they are referred to in court papers) were involved in the renovation and sale of the property to Thrushcross Land Holdings Limited – a wholly-owned subsidiary of Mara for A$22.5 million. It is learnt that attempts are being made to serve the court papers on Azizi and Abdul Ghani.

The writ filed at the Supreme Court of Victoria in Melbourne further claims that notwithstanding the contract (sale) price, a sum of A$4.7 million was paid out of the proceeds to three Malaysian companies – Leuven Capital Sdn Bhd, Optimus Capital Group of Companies Sdn Bhd and TRR Heritage Sdn Bhd.

These three Malaysian companies, Yeo avers, are directly or indirectly associated with the interests of Yusof and Azizi and the former Mara CEO Ahmad Nazim Abdul Rahman and/or other current or former employees of Mara, Mazrul Haizad Marof and Izaddeen Daud.

It had been previously reported that on Jan 17, 2013, TRR Heritage had billed Wanissa for A$725,000 for “Marketing and Professional Advise (sic)”. Two weeks later, Optimus Capital submitted an invoice for A$675,000 as “advertising and promotion fee” totalling A$675,000.

On March 31, 2013, Leuven Capital submitted an invoice for A$2 million for “consultation and advisory fee”. At the end of April, it submitted yet another invoice for “sales commission” for A$1.35 million.

Australian authorities believe the money paid to the three Malaysian identities were on the basis of scam invoices. Their investigations showed that no such fees were payable to Malaysian companies as Wanissa had made a direct sale to Mara Inc. It was a private sale and there were no commissions, promotions and advertising fees to be paid for.

Investigations by the police and tax authorities are ongoing in Melbourne.

R NADESWARAN is an award-winning veteran journalist who writes on bread-and-butter issues with one agenda - a better quality of life for all Malaysians irrespective of colour, creed or religion. He can be reached at citizen.nades22@gmail.com. -Mkini