Annuar, we have copy of internal briefing, says Rafizi

Mara could have set up an Australian subsidiary but instead chose to construct an elaborate network in several countries.

KUALA LUMPUR: National Oversight & Whistleblowers (NOW), an NGO headed by Pandan MP Rafizi Ramli, has alleged that the nature of Mara property purchases overseas was camouflaged through various offshore companies registered in the British Virgin Islands (BVI), Labuan and Singapore and also property companies in Australia to make tracing them difficult and probably to cover-up any wrongdoing and/or mask their true ownership.

He referred to the 746 Swanston Street and Dudley House International properties held in BVI; 333 Exhibition Street held in Labuan, Singapore and Australia; and 51 Queen’s Street held in Labuan, Singapore and Australia.
Rafizi, who has just completed a trip to Melbourne and took the opportunity to vet the Mara purchases, wants Mara Chairman Annuar Musa to come clean on the purchases. “We will expose several other matters related to the controversial Australian and other purchases in the weeks to come. We have a copy of an internal Mara briefing paper.”

He charged that the purchases do not comply with Mara’s own criteria on returns and should have been aborted by Annuar the moment he assumed the chairmanship of Mara. “Mara could have set up an Australian subsidiary but instead chose to construct an elaborate network in several countries.”
For starters, he said, the question arises whether Annuar was aware that the controversial purchases stem from the approach taken by Mara Inc, its subsidiary.

Two other issues relate to why Annuar did not have the controversial purchases investigated before they were exposed by The Age, an Australian national daily; and again, why several different companies were used in different jurisdictions to buy the controversial purchases when the beneficial ownership resides with Mara Inc. in Australia.

Rafizi was commenting on Annuar issuing a statement that he wasn’t aware of Mara’s controversial property purchases in Australia until they became public knowledge; and that he had been given the impression that all Mara purchases in that country were above board.

He noted that Mara Inc Chairman Mohd Lan Allani, the man at the centre of the gathering storm, had visited the properties in May last year together with Annuar and a Mara delegation.

Again, he reiterated, that he had a copy of the briefing paper used during the trip. “The visit was reported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on its website.”

It was the same website that alerted The Age to the property purchases.