RM21 million Cash – New Land Grab Profit for Taib Brother!
By Sarawak Report
With just days to go before the election the Mahmud family are still coining in money from land handed to them by the Chief Minister.
On February 18th, the Malaysia Stock Exchange announced a RM 21 million purchase of 80% of a company that was been given a stake in a 5,000 hectare plantation in the Baram region by Taib Mahmud. Our researches have shown that the lion’s share of that cash payment went to his own brother Ibrahim Mahmud!
Poor Ibrahim?
Ibrahim has often been referred to as Taib’s poorest brother, because he did an ordinary job and went into the police force.Insiders have often felt sorry for him because he did not do as well as the others who have lived off timber and oil palm plantations handed to them by the Cheif Minister.
However, we have already established that Ibrahim has done pretty nicely out of the Masretus Plantation, which was state land handed to him by his brother and now he is doing even better! For all we know there have been many more such hand-outs to poor Ibrahim – after all his house is not what you would normally expect for a retired policeman!
Gesture for charity, but most stays in the family!
The area concerned is 5,000 hectares handed out to the so-called Amgreen Plantation in Baram, an area being threatened with total destruction from logging, oil palm and now dams, thanks to Taib’s policies. Amgreen used to be called Yayasan Sarawak plantation, according to the records, in recognition of the fact that it is partly owned by the Sarawak Foundation, which is responsible for raising money to pay for educational scholarships (spokesman Adenan Satem is Taib’s brother in law) and partly by a Malay cultural foundation.
However, the largest shareholder of Amgreen is not either of the foundations, but a private company called Victoria Square Plantation Sdn Bhd, which has 65% of the shares. Adenan Satem clearly did not think it appropriate to question that the majority shareholder of Victoria Plantation is Ibrahim Mahmud, who is clearly marked as the contact in the 2007 Land Registry documents for a sister company, Victoria Square Development.
Note that the same address and same phone numbers apply to Amgreen and to Victoria Square Development, owned by Ibrahim Mahmud!
A matter of addresses
It is plain to see that the Amgreen land deal, supposedly for the benefit of the two foundations, was organised and managed out of Ibrahim Mahmud’s office. Just look at the identical office addresses and phone numbers!
