‘MONEY BAG’ MICHAEL CHIA THE JHO LOW OF MUSA & NAZRI-GATE: SABAH TYCOON’S HUMMER DRIVEN BY NAZRI’S SON NEDIM BACK IN THE NEWS – AMID EVIDENCE MICHAEL SENT KICKBACKS TO MUSA’S SONS THE SAME WAY JHO LAUNDERED MONEY FOR NAJIB’S STEPSON RIZA AZIZ

Just because he grew his beard to look like a holy Muslim man, doesn’t mean Musa Aman can claim innocence under the rule of law. He might escape punishment for his past corruption practice, had he lived in Afghanistan. But under the new government of Pakatan Harapan, his alleged corruption in connection with timber concessions in Sabah does not expire even if it happened between 2004 and 2008.

Mr. Musa, former Sabah Chief Minister, has been charged of pocketing US$63.3 million (RM264 million) as bribes in exchange for logging concession contracts to 16 companies. He was slapped with 35 charges under Section 11(a) of the Anti-Corruption Act 1997, which carries a jail sentence of up to 20 years and a fine of not less than 5 times or RM10,000, whichever is higher.

His lawyer, however, asked an interesting question – “Why arrest him now, just before the High Court is set to deliver its decision?” Through his lawyer, the highly corrupt Musa Aman appears to suggest that his arrest is a tactic to prejudice him in the eyes of the court. What this means is should Musa fail to get reinstated as the rightful chief minister, he can blame it on his arrest today.

But if his arrest is delayed just to facilitate the court decision on Wednesday, will he not blame the arrest anyway as a ploy to deny him the throne, when the court somehow decides he is the rightful chief minister? So really, there’s no correct timing to arrest him. Therefore, for Musa Aman and his lawyer to cry “selective persecution” is rather childish.

Mr. Musa allegedly committed the corruptions at eight locations in Singapore and Hong Kong between Dec 20, 2004, and Nov 6, 2008 using six banks and six proxies in the two countries. He received the bribes from Lim Nyuk Foh (RM5.4 million), Looh Chai Boon (RM78 million), Chia Tien Foh (RM84.7 million), Mazlan Zakaria (RM15 million) and Lo Man Heng (RM16.7 million).

He also received the kickbacks from Nasir Yeo Guan Hock (RM37 million), Nip Wing Hon (RM2.7 million) and Ngui Ing Chuan (RM23.8 million) and others. Surprisingly, Musa Aman drags UMNO warlord Nazri Aziz into his corruption scandal, arguing that he had already been cleared of the allegations by then de facto law minister Nazri in Parliament.

Now, do you understand why the notorious Nazri Aziz was among the earliest shameless UMNO warlords who made a spectacular U-turn – biting the hand that feeds him (former prime minister Najib Razak) and sucking up to Prime Minister Mahathir instead? It is precisely dumb people like Musa Aman who will eventually expose and drag Nazri into the scandal.

Nazri was not the attorney general, let alone a judge who can clear Musa of any wrongdoing. In fact, Nazri was as corrupt, if not more corrupt, than Musa. So, telling all and sundry that Nazri had cleared him more than 10 years ago of corruption is like advertising on The Wall Street Journal or CNN that a crook had cleared another crook of stealing and looting.

Interestingly, lead prosecutor Gopal Sri Ram revealed the prosecution actually had a strong case against Musa but for the strangest reason, the case against the then powerful Sabah Chief Minister was ordered to be closed. Did Nazri Aziz, in his capacity as de facto law minister, arrogantly gave the order to throw out the case so that both Musa and Nazri could scratch each other’s back?

Yes, without him realizing it, Mr. Nazri could be in trouble now after Mr. Musa used his name to justify his innocence. One of Musa’s six proxies – Chia Tien Foh – is the same infamous Michael Chia suspected to be the man who did money laundering for the ex-chief minister. Their relation was so close that Chia was known as “adopted son” of Musa.

Amazingly, Michael Chia also had a very close relationship with Nazri’s notorious playboy son – Mohamad Nedim Nazri – so much so that he was caught driving an American Hummer 2 SUV with registration number “WNX 9776”, belonging Michael Chia. The Hummer was one of many assets identified by the MACC investigation into illiterate Michael Chia’s money laundering scandal.

The name Chia Tien Foh appears 16 times in the 35 charges being slapped on Musa Aman. In 2008, Hong Kong’s Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) had seized S$16 million from Michael Chia who was trying to leave the city with the cash. Four years later in 2012, Nazri cleared everyone of any wrongdoing, despite the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) saying otherwise.

In a written reply in parliament in 2012, the scumbag Nazri Aziz denied that the said S$16 million cash belonged to Sabah Chief Minister Musa Aman, claiming that it was a donation to UMNO party in Sabah instead. Yes, years before PM Najib Razak uses “donation” as an excuse to steal and launder money, Mr. Nazri has already proven himself as the specialist in the field.

It was a public domain that cash carrier Michael Chia Tien Foh was a personal agent and close associate of Musa Aman. Nazri literally pushed the words into MACC’s mouth when he claimed that the MACC has concluded that “no element of corruption was proven”. But MACC deputy chief commissioner Shukri Abdul said the investigation was ongoing.

Michael Chia was like Jho Low in the 1MDB scandal involving the disgraced Najib Razak and his family members. Michael Chia sent kickbacks money to Musa’s two sons (Mohammed Hayssam Musa and Hazem Musa Hazem Mubarak Musa) studying in Australia, the same way Jho Low sent laundered money to Najib’s stepson Riza Aziz in the U.S. to make “The Wolf Of Wall Street” film.

And like Najib who screamed, whined and bitched that he didn’t know much about Jho Low when caught initially, Musa too had denied any link whatsoever with Michael Chia at the early stage. It was no surprise that PM Najib Razak didn’t think it was a big deal when Michael Chia was caught trying to leave the Hong Kong International Airport with RM40 million in Singapore currency.

Hong Kong ICAC reportedly launched a joint probe with its counterpart in Malaysia, but the investigation was dropped in October that year (2012), despite millions of dollars traced to nominee accounts in a UBS Hong Kong branch to the Chief Minister of Sabah, Musa Aman. The investigation was allegedly blocked by former Malaysia Attorney General Abdul Gani Patail.

The Sarawak Report’s investigation alleged that the money was passed by Sabah lawyer Richard Christopher Barnes from Chief Minister Musa Aman into the Hong Kong account before it was forwarded to a UBS Zurich account (No: 231117) in the chief minister’s own name. Besides Michael Chia and Barnes, Musa’s other proxies included Yeo, Ark Capital Technologies Ltd and Starwater Corporation Ltd.

Musa’s ill-gotten money was stashed in bank accounts from Citibank, HSBC, JP Morgan Chase Manhattan Bank, UBS AG Bank, Credit Suisse and Fortis Private Banking. As much as RM90 million laundered from logging companies in Sabah ended in Musa Aman’s UBS bank accounts alone. After one big circle, the chickens have come home to roost.

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