Kota Kinabalu: The Sabah Foundation (Yayasan Sabah) Board of Trustees has filed a claim at the Kota Kinabalu High Court here against former Chief Minister Tan Sri Musa Aman to recover RM872 million which, it claims, were “lost” due to an alleged dubious logging activity agreements.They made the application via e-filing on June 16, said YS Director Datuk Jamalul Kiram Mohd Zakaria, who represented the Board at a press conference at the State Administrative Centre (PPNS), Friday.
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“The Board of Trustees wants to recover the RM872 million which were lost due to dubious logging activity agreements. We believe the money belongs to YS, which is the biggest logging concession holder in Sabah,” he said.
YS was set up in 1966 to look after the socio-economic welfare of the people of Sabah as well as assist in State education development.
“Musa had failed to fulfil his ‘fiduciary’ obligation to safeguard the interests of YS while acted as the Board of Trustees of YS which was established to provide services for the people of Sabah.
“The Board has strong reasons to believe that Musa had used his position to direct YS subsidiary company, Rakyat Berjaya Sendirian Berhad, for the purpose of logging business.
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“We have named several recipients and transactions involving money in several offshore accounts which we want to claim through the legal process,” he said. Their lawyer, Datuk Douglas Lind, and other Board of Trustees members were also present.
In the statement of claim, the foundation asserted that Musa, whose tenure as chairman coincided with his terms as the Chief Minister from March 27 2003 till May 2018, had engineered a scheme for personal gains by systematically selling off its concession areas to selected or nominated companies for between RM1,600 and RM2,000 per hectare.
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The statement also said that further to the fraudulent scheme and in breach of his fiduciary duty, Musa had employed businessman Michael Chia to negotiate the business transactions for ill gotten gains.
“In order to conceal these illegal activities from the plaintiff and authorities, all these ill gotten monies procured under the fraudulent scheme was diverted from the purchasers to companies in tax free countries like the British Virgin Islands and then to Chia’s bank accounts in HSBC Bank and UBS bank in Singapore and Hong Kong.
“They were then later again diverted from Chia to a Richard Christopher Barnes who was Musa’s personal advisor then,” it said.
The claim said that Chia was reportedly paid US$42 million (RM179 million at current rates) and US$90 million on separate occasions and prior to his arrest in Hong Kong with RM16 million in cash.
The money was said to have been transferred to Umno Sabah to save himself from criminal prosecution.
It noted that in the 30 charges the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission had filed against Musa, the former CM had been accused of receiving some RM263 million from numerous lumber companies who were granted concessions, some of which were diverted to his sons studying in Perth at the time.
On June 9, Musa was acquitted and discharged on all the 30 counts of corruption mentioned above along with another 16 related charges of money laundering.
“By reason of his numerous breaches of duty, the Foundation had suffered substantial loss and damages,” it said.
The foundation is seeking reparations to the tune of RM872 million along with interests and costs.
The foundation’s lawyer, Datuk Douglas Lind, said they were still in the process of serving the suit.
“We think we have a strong case. The board wouldn’t file the suit if we didn’t,” he said.Following the establishment of the plaintiff, the State Government initially granted to the plaintiff a start-up grant of RM1 million and subsequently in 1970 it granted to the plaintiff a 100 years lease over 3,300 square miles of virgin forested lands.
The intention for the granting of the 3,300 square miles of timber concession is to assist the plaintiff to generate or procure all the necessary financial resources or revenue to undertake all its educational, social and charitable activities as provided by the Sabah Foundation Enactment.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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