Paper trail leads to RM13.1m Mara deal
Published on: Tuesday, July 28, 2015
Selangor: Confidential documents and exchanges of electronic mail recovered by Australian authorities have revealed the paper trail through which A$4.7 million (RM13.1 million) in secret profits and kickbacks were repatriated to Malaysia in the sale of a building to Mara Incorporated Sdn Bhd.One of them, crucial to the investigations, is an indemnity letter signed by a Malaysian, who they believe is directly linked to the Dudley.Street property in Melbourne that was acquired by Mara Inc two years ago.ADVERTISEMENT The letter, was signed by one Mazrul Haizad Maarof and indemnified Dennis Teen Boon Lye, a director of WanissaProperties Pte Ltd, on payments to tax authorities.Wanissa developed the property along Dudley Street in East Melbourne and subsequently sold it to Mara Inc for A$22.5 million.Teen has been identified in a bankruptcy hearing as one of the three Australians involved in the development of the property by aADVERTISEMENT Malaysianowned company. The other Australians are Chris Dimitriou and Peter Mills, who once did a stint in prison for corporate fraud.The latter, at the hearing agreed that the A$4.75 million generated by inflating the sale price was used "to grease palms" overseas.
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At the hearing Dimitriou stated: "To the best of my knowledge, that money went to Malaysian parties."The Malaysian directors of Wanissa are Datuk Azizi Yom and Datuk Yusuf Ghani.Documents seized also showed that all directors were agreeable to sell the building for A$17.8 million but this was later "inflated to A$22.54 million."Mazrul, 41, in the letter dated July 24, 2103 had undertaken to indemnify Teen against any claims by the Australian taxation office in return for a payment of A$4.75 million for "services provided" by three Malaysian companies.The three Malaysian companies are Leuven Capital Sdn Bhd, Optimus Capital Group of Companies Sdn Bhd and TRR Heritage Sdn Bhd.On Jan 17, 2013, TRR Heritage had billed Wanissa for A$725,000 for "Marketing and Professional Advise (sic)". Two weeks later, Optimus Capital submitted an invoice for A$675,000 as "advertising and promotion fee".On March 31, 2013, Leuven Capital submitted an invoice for A$2 million for "consultation and advisory fee". At the end of April, it submitted yet another invoice for A$1.35 million for "sales commission".Australian authorities believe these were scam invoices and their investigations showed that no such fees were payable to Malaysian companies as Wanissa had made a direct sale to Mara Inc.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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It was a private sale and there were no commissions, promotions and advertising fees to be paid for.Mazrul is a common director in all three companies and the National Oversight and Whistleblowers Centre (NOW) claimed he is the brotherinlaw of Umno Youth executive council member, Dazma Shah Daud.