Politicians among 1,500 who own offshore companies
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They include former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad's son Mirzan, Federal Territories and Urban Wellbeing Minister Raja Nong Chik Zainal Abidin and Michael Chia, the alleged ‘bagman' for Sabah Chief Minister Musa Aman.
The
files, which were obtained by Washington-based International
Confederation of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and examined by Malaysiakini, show
over 1,500 Malaysians owning offshore companies in Singapore - dubbed
as the new Switzerland - as well as the British Virgin Islands (BVI), an
international tax haven.The ICIJ list comprises a curious mix of Forbes-listed tycoons, parliamentarians, retired politicians and civil servants and their spouses, members of royal families, famous and infamous businesspeople, underworld kingpins and even former beauty queens.
While some of the off-shore companies carry out legitimate transactions, others are likely to be part of the RM871.4 billion estimated by Washington-based financial watchdog Global Financial Integrity (GFI) lost through illicit outflows over a 10-year period.
In 2010 alone, GFI reported that close to RM200 billion of dirty money was siphoned out of Malaysia, putting the country second only to Asian economic powerhouse China in global capital flight.
The leaked ICIJ files provide secret records of offshore holdings of people and companies in more than 170 countries and territories.
"The hoard of documents represents the biggest stockpile of inside information about the offshore system ever obtained by a media organisation. The total size of the files, measured in gigabytes, is more than 160 times larger than the leak of US State Department documents by Wikileaks in 2010," says ICIJ.
However, despite the extensive data, this is not the complete list of all off-shore companies around the world. Indeed, it is only the tip of the iceberg.
Nevertheless, it allows the public, for the very first time, to sneak a peak into the secretive world of anonymous wealth.
Raja Nong Chik
According to the leaked documents, Raja Nong Chik, who is Lembah Pantai Umno chief, is a prominent shareholder and director of RZA International Corporation, a British Virgin Islands entity incorporated on Aug 21, 2007 via Singapore.
The company is a mirror of Malaysian entity Kumpulan RZA Sdn Bhd, a 1997-founded company dealing in real estate and equities investment.
Raja
Nong Chik set up the off-shore entity with his father Raja Zainal
Abidin Raja Tachik, a number of his sisters and brothers as well as
other family members. Most of them are also shareholders and directors
of Kumpulan RZA Sdn Bhd.Prior to his senatorship, Raja Nong Chik was a corporate figure who founded and managed an engineering firm for 20 years.
When contacted by Malaysiakini, the minister confirmed that RZA International was set up by his father, who will turn 96 this year, "for the purpose of holding legitimate offshore investments for the family".
The minister however did not elaborate on the offshore investments made by his family through the company. He added that RZA International was de-registered in 2009.
"The company was not used to obscure activities of Kumpulan RZA Sdn Bhd, and neither was it used to circumvent taxes or hide transactions overseas," he said in an email to Malaysiakini.
Mirzan Mahathir
Mirzan Mahathir, the eldest son of Mahathir, is also among those the ICIJ list - he was director and shareholder of three off-shore companies.
Mirzan's major commercial vehicle in Malaysia is Crescent Capital Sdn Bhd, an investment holding and independent strategic and financial advisory firm. He is the company's chairperson and chief executive officer.
A
Forbes-listed entrepreneur, Mirzan holds a non-executive director
position in Philippines-based San Miguel group, which has raised
eyebrows in Muslim-majority Malaysia, as beer brewery is one of San
Miguel's core businesses.One of Mirzan's off-shore entities is called Crescent Energy Limited, a Labuan off-shore company incorporated on Dec 16, 2003, originally named Mainline Limited and with an authorised share capital of US$12,000 (RM37,000).
Mirzan became a director and main shareholder six days later and the company was renamed Crescent Energy on May 16, 2008.
Another Labuan off-shore company, Utara Capital Limited, of which Mirzan was the sole shareholder and director, was incorporated on Aug 19, 1997, with an authorised share capital of US$15,000.
The third company, Al Sadd Investments Pte Ltd. was also a Labuan off-shore company. It was established on May 14, 2009, also with an authorised share capital of US$12,000. Mirzan was the sole shareholder and director of Al Sadd Investments.
Malaysiakini has approached Mirzan's office for his comments on these offshore companies, but his aide said he was unable to respond on the matter as he was out of town.
Micheal Chia
Another prominent personality on the list is Chia Tien Foh, who is better known as Michael Chia - the shadowy business tycoon who was allegedly linked to Sabah Chief Minister Musa Aman.
Chia, too, had three offshore companies where he acted either as director or shareholder. One of them was CTF International Ltd - ‘CTF' is apparently the initials of Chia's full name. It was incorporated on April 18, 2007 in the British Virgin Islands.
CTF International gained notoriety when it was named by whistleblower website Sarawak Report of being a conduit in channelling millions of ringgit to a Hong Kong account allegedly linked to Musa.
Musa (left), however, had denied any business ties with Chia (right).CTF was de-registered in 2008. The other two offshore companies owned by Chia are Ravenswood Development Limited and Ark Capital Technologies Limited.
In addition, Chia's wife Yap Loo Mien and another woman who is allegedly his mistress, Yap Siaw Lin, also appear on the list - they too were key shareholders in three separate British Virgin Islands entities.
Loo Mien owned two companies - Perfect Minds Incorporated and StarWater Corporation - while Siaw Lin owned Splendor Success Worldwide Ltd.
Malaysiakini contacted Chia through his address stated in his company registration documents for comments, but there was no response.
Iron-clad secrecy
According to a former official of the Inland Revenue Board (IRB), crooked Malaysians may park their money offshore to enjoy either significantly lower or even no taxes, and where the income is illegal, they are protected by a wall of secrecy.
He said however that such ploys may not always succeed as Malaysia has a double taxation agreement with close to 80 countries which provides for the exchange of information on investigation involving prevention or detection of tax evasion or fraud.
This
includes Singapore, where some of the offshore companies are based. The
island republic has been labeled by Sarawak corporate lawyer Alvin
Chong (right) as the "new Switzerland" in a recent video clandestinely filmed by London-based NGO Global Witness.The former tax investigator, who worked in IRB for over 20 years, added that while the setting up of offshore companies is not illegal in itself, they can be used to evade taxes.
"For example, a payment can be made for a seemingly legitimate service, like consultancy for the procurement of submarines, but it is paid to a company set up overseas, where the recipient pays a lower tax.
"Singapore and Hong Kong, with corporate tax rates of about 17 percent compared to Malaysia's 25 percent, are popular parking lots." he said on the condition of anonymity.
Tax evasion
One of the methods of tax evasion was explained by Chong in the Global Witness video - on how to avoid paying capital gains tax relating to Sarawak's doggy land deals.
According to the former tax officer, offshore companies often include many layers of ownership through nominees to camouflage and "water down the link" to the original owner.
As such, he said the act of setting up offshore companies in tax havens often raises red flags."Someone can say that their company is set up at the British Virgin Islands, for example, but the money they use to set up the BVI company, or more importantly, the operations channeled through these tax havens could raise suspicion as being not genuine and invite an IRB probe," he said.
"If the MACC (Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission), IRB or the police want information from their Singapore counterparts, for example, the latter are obliged to give, at least under the Malaysia-Singapore DTA (double taxation agreement)," he said.
But most tax havens are not signatories to DTA agreements and they operate outside international law.
Moreover, it is also up to the Malaysian authorities to decide whether to pursue the case and seek the necessary information from their counterparts abroad.
Aidila Razak, Kuek Ser Kuang Keng, Wong Teck Chi and Steven Gan contributed to this report.
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