A Canadian superior court has ruled that a money-laundering case involving a company linked to Sarawak Governor Abdul Taib Mahmud will be heard in public, according to Swiss NGO Bruno Manser Fund (BMF).
In a statement, BMF said the case it filed in July to gain access to the financial records of Ottowa-based Sakto Corporation and its affiliated companies was originally sealed, before the Ontario Superior Court lifted the order.
BMF claims that the Taib family had channelled millions of ringgit in allegedly illicit money into the company.
Sakto was co-founded and is chaired by Taib's daughter Jamilah, whose husband Sean Murray (the couple below) is the company president. The company mainly deals in property development.
BMF is suing the Royal Bank of Canada, Toronto-Dominion Bank, Manulife Financial Corporation and Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu to compel them to disclose beneficial ownership information and records of the alleged flow of funds from Malaysia into Sakto.
BMF is hoping to use that information to pursue private prosecution against Sakto. Malaysiakini has contacted the offices of Sakto and Taib for their response.
In March, a BMF report presented in the Canadian Parliament claimed that the Taib family channelled at least Canadian $69.8 million (RM232 million) to the Sakto group of companies.
The report noted that Taib, the former Sarawak chief minister, had said in an interview that he provided Jamilah an undisclosed amount of money to start her business in Ottawa.
He claimed that the money was from gratuity he received upon resigning from the federal government in 1981.
The report also cited a 2014 letter by Murray to the Toronto Star, in which Murray revealed that the company's shareholders were Jamilah and three other family members, including Taib's brother Onn Mahmud.
However, Murray in the letter denied that Taib was involved in the company. - Mkini
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