Itâ€™s not about Islam but about profits

ARCHIVES 2009

By MT Webmaster On Aug 24, 2009

So don’t get overly worried. Khalid may not be the best Menteri Besar in Malaysia. He may not even be the best businessman. But that does not mean he was trying to run away with Bank Islam’s money. There is certainly more to the story than just Khalid defaulting on his RM60 million loan.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim’s ongoing skirmish with Bank Islam brings back memories of my own skirmish with this same bank 25 years or so ago. Actually it was two skirmishes, ten years apart.

The first involved three loans that I took from them back in the early 1980s. Each loan was RM500,000. So the total came to RM1.5 million. To secure these loans I charged three pieces of property to them. Two were shop-houses in Kuala Terengganu and the third was a three-storey bungalow on a 10,000 square feet piece of land in Bangsar. Each property was valued at RM500,000 (back in the 1980s, mind you).

But Bank Islam could not give out loans, so to speak. They can only come into partnership with you. They become your partner in the purchase of the property. So what the bank did was it purchased the three properties from me, which were already in my name in the first place, and resold them back to me.

The way it worked was as follows. Bank Islam bought the property from me at RM500,000 apiece. So the total of the three came to RM1.5 million. And this is the amount they paid me – RM1.5 million. The bank then sold back the property to me at RM1.1 million apiece. And I had to pay back the bank RM6,111 per month over 15 years. For the three pieces of property I would have to pay them RM18,333 per month over 15 years.

In short, I ‘unofficially’ borrowed RM1.5 million from Bank Islam and had to pay them back RM3.3 million over 15 years at RM18,333 per month. As I said, this was more than 25 years ago, back in the early 1980s, so it was quite a burden at that time as it was quite a huge sum of money.

Anyway, a couple of years later, in 1987, the economy collapsed and my three pieces of property, originally worth RM1.5 million, dropped to about RM700,000 or so. Because of the bad economic situation and the stock market collapse on ‘Black Monday’, also in 1987, I could no longer afford the RM18,333 a month payments. I decided, therefore, to sell off the properties and pay back the bank what I owed.

I worked out the arithmetic. I had borrowed RM1.5 million from the bank. Over 7 years I have already paid back the bank RM1.5 million. I still had more than halfway to go to complete the 15 years. And I would still have to pay the bank a further RM1.8 million if I go the full 15 years.

But the three pieces of property were worth less than half the price I bought them for. The properties were now worth only RM700,000-RM800,000 and I had originally bought them for cash at a price of RM1.5 million. But I had already paid Bank Islam this full amount of RM1.5 million. What was left outstanding is the bank’s ‘profit’ (not interest) of RM1.8 million that it was charging me on my 'unofficial loan'.

I met the bank to negotiate a full settlement. I would sell off the three pieces of property for a total price of about RM700,000 to RM800,000. Would the bank be prepared to accept RM800,000 as the full settlement figure and give me a rebate of RM1 million? I would lose RM1.5 million on the deal if the bank were prepared to forgo RM1 million of its ‘profit’ (not interest).

That, I explained, was a reasonable request. After all, my loan was for 15 years and I was going to make full settlement after only 7 years. This means I am paying off my loan 8 years ahead of time and was going to take a loss of RM1.5 million. But I wanted a RM1 million rebate on the 8 years early settlement.

The bank said no. I would have to pay the full RM1.8 million due on what I still owed the bank. No doubt I was paying back what I owed in 7 years rather than 15 years. But the bank never gave me a loan. What the bank did was it signed a Sales and Purchase agreement with me. The bank had bought the three pieces of property from me for a total price of RM1.5 million and had sold them back to me for a total price of RM3.3 million. The RM1.8 million was the profit the bank was making from me for allowing me to pay back the RM3.3 million at RM18,333 per month over 15 years.

The bank further explained that it was not they who were asking me to make full settlement. I still had 8 years more to go. It was my decision to make full settlement in 7 years instead of paying off the amount over 15 years.

I was flabbergasted. I already paid the bank RM1.5 million, the amount I borrowed. No doubt the bank has to make a profit on the 7 years I had used their money. But surely they could give me a rebate since I am paying back the full amount in 7 years instead of stretching the loan over 15 years.

But the bank was adamant. They wanted me to pay them another RM1.8 million. But how could I? The three pieces of property were going to be sold for only RM800,000, or slightly less. So I would be RM1 million short.

The bank agreed to ‘compromise’. I can sell off the three pieces of property for RM800,000. The bank will agree to release the property if the RM800,000 comes to them. But I have to offer additional security for the RM1 million still outstanding. I had no choice but to charge other properties to the bank. The properties I charged to secure the RM1 million difference were 45 pieces of land worth roughly RM20,000 per piece.

The three pieces of property were sold off and the bank took their RM800,000. Later, I also sold the 45 pieces of land and the bank took this money as well. But since I sold off the 45 pieces of land not piece by piece, but by block sale, I could not get a good price. I lost about RM500,000 on the land.

The bank was kind enough to offer me a ‘discount’. They just took whatever I got on the land and did not press me for more than that. Finally, I ended up paying back the bank almost double what I borrowed and I lost my two shop-houses, the Bangsar bungalow and the 45 pieces of land. In the end, I ended up with zero.

The bottom line is, I did not borrow money from the bank and the bank never gave me a loan. What the bank did was it bought my property from me and sold them back to me at more than double the price. And I was supposed to pay back this purchase price over 15 years.

I argued that the Sales and Purchase agreement was a farce. The properties were already in my name in the first place and remained in my name throughout. It was merely a paper transaction. We signed a Sales Agreement where I ‘sold’ the bank my property and we signed another agreement, a Purchase Agreement, where I ‘bought’ the property from the bank. But the bank’s name never appeared on the land titles. They never became the owner of the property. They only took a charge. And what about the other pieces of land that they took as additional security, which were sold off and the bank took the money? Where does this come in if the transaction was not a loan?

My second skirmish with the bank was when I wrote an article about Bank Islam, which was published in Harakah. The article was called ‘How Islamic is Bank Islam?’. In that article I related the story I just related above.

Bank Islam’s lawyers got in touch with Harakah and threatened to sue them for publishing this article. In the end, they got cold feet and decided not to sue because they were worried that this story I just related would become public knowledge.

I was pissed. I felt that the bank had screwed me good and proper. I only borrowed RM1.5 million from them even though they deny it was a loan and say that it was a sales and purchase arrangement. But we all know it was a loan, only that they disguised the loan as a sales and purchase arrangement.

I had already fully paid the RM1.5 million which I borrowed. I was prepared to pay them another RM800,000 for the 7 years I had used their money. I was also prepared to take a RM1.5 million loss on the deal. I only wanted a rebate of RM1 million on the 8 years I was no longer going to use their money.

But they said no. They wanted their full 15 years profit of RM1.8 million even if I am paying them back the full amount in 7 years. And because of that I had to sell off everything I owned to pay them the amount they were demanding even though I was making full settlement. That practically broke me financially, at a time when the entire world was facing an economic crisis and a stock market collapse.

The issue here, as explained by the bank, was that they never gave me a loan. Instead, they sold me three pieces of property for an agreed sales price and an agreed payback period. I can choose to pay them back early If I wish. I can even sell off the property if I wish. But I must pay back the bank RM3.3 million and not a penny less.

Yes, it was very complicating indeed. And the Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim issue is as complicating. On the surface they make it appear like Khalid owes the bank RM60 million and did not pay back. Actually, that is not the issue at all. Maybe Khalid should explain what happened like how I have explained above.

Remember, the mainstream media is owned and controlled by Barisan Nasional. So rest assured they are going to spin the story as if Khalid is a delinquent. But I know Bank Islam and I know how they operate. And I am not the only one who got screwed by them. Many others can relate their own horror stories on how they were at the receiving end when they dealt with Bank Islam, which is far from Islamic.