Mara probe Down Under - five years and still waiting

Just before we broke the story of the inflated prices paid by Mara Incorporated Sdn Bhd (Mara Inc) for the purchase of two buildings in Melbourne in 2016, Australian journalist Nick McKenzie and I were hampered in many ways. 

There were several roadblocks and our official letters and emails to both Mara Inc's then chairperson Mohd Lan Allani and the former CEO Abdul Halim Rahim went unanswered. The secretary refused to put through our calls.

But we persevered. Using our (mostly McKenzie’s) resources, we chanced upon an affidavit of John Bond, a doting father who had done construction work on a building owned by a group of Malaysians but had been not paid for it.

(McKenzie is an award-winning investigative journalist working for The Age and produces the 'Four Corners' documentary programme for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation).

The saga started when an accountant, Andrew Yeo, a senior partner in Pitcher Partners, assigned the case to a bright young man, Odie Henzel. He took up Bond’s case to recover the fees owed and it opened the Pandora’s box of the dirty deals which Mara Inc was allegedly involved in.

If only Warissa Properties Pte Ltd had paid Bond, who was commissioned to install the doors and windows of the Dudley House (photo below), the perpetrators would be enjoying their ill-gotten money without worrying about spending time in jail.

Three years ago, I met Yeo in Melbourne, who had partial success is getting back part of the money due to Bond. The Australian Federal Police lamented then that the Malaysian authorities were slow in responding to a mutual legal assistance (MLA) request. Well, that was before GE14 and things changed.

The new board of Mara (appointed in June 2018) commissioned a forensic audit of the property deals and this was said to have been completed and submitted by Ernst and Young in December (this board was disbanded in April this year and new members were appointed).

Three Malaysians – Azizi Yom Ahmad, Abdul Ghani Yusof and Dennis Teen (who is now domiciled in Australia), together with Australians Peter Mills and Chris Dimitriou, had set up a company – Wanissa – to sell Dudley House to Mara for A$17.8 million (RM53.4 million) but inflated the selling price to A$22.5 million (RM67.5 million).

Two weeks ago, when Malaysiakini reported that Teen had been charged with bribery and money laundering, there was no dearth of voices calling for action against the Malaysian perpetrators.

The Pakatan Harapan-appointed Mara chairperson Azizah Mohd Dun said that since the case was raised by the Australian authorities in mid-2015, the MACC, Mara and Mara Inc have given full cooperation in investigating the issue.

"However, I call on all parties to give space to the authorities to conduct an investigation based on the provisions of the existing law," Azizah, who is also the Beaufort MP, said in a statement.

Teen, 68, was charged with bribing a foreign public official on March 8, 2013, in Vermont South, Melbourne.

The charges came five years after an investigation by The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and theSun which revealed the price of the property had allegedly been inflated by A$4.75 million (RM14.25 million) to provide kickbacks to a group of Malaysian officials.

Explanation needed

But how much space and time does the MACC need? As soon as the story broke in 2015, I personally handed over all related documents in my possession to the MACC.

On March 18, 2016, it was reported that then Mara chairperson Annuar Musa had delivered documents related to the purchase to the MACC. A week later, two former senior officers of Mara Inc, both with the “Datuk” title, were among three people remanded for investigations into the purchase of property

In April 2017, the then MACC deputy chief commissioner (operations) Azam Baki (who is now chief commissioner) said 24 witnesses had been called in to assist with investigations over the alleged acquisition of property. He also said the commission had inspected seven premises, including a law firm, an appraiser's office and the Mara Inc office.

"All related documentation regarding the purchase of the property in Australia have also been seized. We have gathered more new information and it is a continuous investigation from the previous case in 2015," Azam was then quoted as saying.

On Nov 30, 2017, then rural and regional development minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob (above) was reported to have said the MACC had “almost completed” the Mara property scandal probe, and that it was waiting for a report from the Australian authorities regarding the transactions.

It has been five years since investigations began and three years since witnesses were interviewed and documents seized. While it is understandable that investigations take time, it is incomprehensible that after all these years, no one has been brought to book.

Both the MACC and the Australian Federal Police have sighted delays in the mutual legal assistance requests, but it is believed that the issue was sorted out two years ago and there had been an unfettered flow of information from both ends.

Right-thinking Malaysians will certainly demand an explanation from the MACC over the inordinate delay. The commission has also been handed a copy of the Ernest and Young report, which traces all the transactions.

The report with flow charts and appendices identifies the personalities and identifies several instances of conflict of interest and other supposed misfeasance.

If investigations had “almost been completed in 2017”, can the MACC tell us why the unwarranted delay instead of saying “we are still investigating”?

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R NADESWARAN has been passionately following the course of events since breaking the story in 2015 and is looking forward to some form of action from the Malaysian end. Comments: citizen.nades22@gmail.com - Mkini

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.

✍ Credit given to the original owner of this post : ☕ Malaysians Must Know the TRUTH

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