Taib’s Family ‘Cheated’ Japanese Shareholders
By Sarawak Report
According to further allegations in the current court case between Dato’ Ting Check Sii and Tufail Mahmud in Sibu, Japanese investors in the Noda Corporation, a major public company which is quoted on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, have been cheated out of millions of ringgit by members of the Chief Minister’s family.
This highly serious claim forms part of a string of accusations lodged by one of Sarawak’s most respected businessmen, Dato’ Ting Check Sii, against the Chief Minister’s brother Tufail Mahmud, sister Hanifa Taib, niece Anita Tufail and nephew Mohammad Tufail.
Dato Ting is the man behind the Sanyan Tower, Sarawak’s tallest building in Sibu and the multi-million dollar Sanyan Group of companies. His allegations also implicate the Japanese Directors of a Sarawak subsidiary of the Noda Corporation, the Ishinomaki Plywood Manufacturing Company, whom he says knew about the fraud but failed to prevent it.
In his evidence, originally submitted in 2008, Dato Ting states:
“Your Petitioner [Ting] has just discovered that Datuk Tufail has made secret profits at the expense of the Company through Hamidah Trading, a company owned and controlled by Datuk Tufail”
The ‘Company’ referred to is Sanyan Wood Industries, which was a joint venture between Noda and the Sanyan Group. Ting goes on to accuse Tufail and the Japanese Directors of the joint venture of being “in breach of their fiduciary duties” by thus ”unlawfully and unjustly enriching Datuk Tufail”.
Damaging evidence
Dato’ Ting Check Sii, the man behind the Sanyan Group
Dato’ Ting, who was a close business partner of Tufail Mahmud for 25 years and was a BN member of the State Assembly, used to be regarded as an ‘ultimate insider’ within the Taib family circle until he fell out with them in 2003. For this reason his testimony is regarded as being particularly dangerous to the Taibs.
The information from this case could therefore have far reaching consequences for the ruling family, who are already facing a series of embarrassing disclosures about their extraordinary wealth and lack of social propriety. It is doutless for this reason that Tufail has both astonished and amused onlookers by bringing groups of black magic ’bomohs’ into the court proceedings to chant and pray on his behalf. This may not be enough when it comes to the impact of the case on public opinion.
