8/9/2019 The Muhyiddin-Stamford Land Conspiracy Matter

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The Muhyiddin-Stamford Land Conspiracy Matter(Just in case you thought No.2 is squeaky clean)

HE following are excerpts fromvarious reports about a matter heardin the mid- 90s, in which Tan Sri

Muhyiddin Yassin and others were sued by propertydeveloper Stamford Holdings S/B: StamfordHoldings Sdn. Bhd. has sued Muhyiddin Yassin, chiefminister of the Johor state, and businessmen YahyaTalib and Syed Mokhtar Albukhary for damages foralleged conspiracy in acquiring land in Johor throughthe Land Acquisition Act, the Bernama national newsagency reported Friday.

T

According to Bernama, Stamford Holdings claimedthe three had abused provisions of the Act to

acquire its 6,600 acres of land through the JohorState Islamic Economic Development Corporation.

The suit was filed at the Kuala Lumpur High Courtearly this month but was transferred Friday to theJohor Baru High Court, Bernama said. StamfordHoldings also named the Johor state government asa defendant in the suit, alleging that Muhyiddin andthe two businessmen conspired to use the stategovernment's authority to acquire the land.

According to the news report, Stamford Holdingswants the court to declare that the Johor StateIslamic Economic Development Corporation was not

entitled to invoke provisions of the Land AcquisitionAct to acquire a private landed property.

(Malaysia's Stamford Sues Minister,

Businessmen - Report17 February 1995)

The facts of the matter as reported by MurrayHiebert , FEER: Stamford's court documents insistthat the company's relationship with the formerchief minister dates back to 1988. Four years earlier,the firm had tried to develop some of its huge landholdings near the state capital of Johor Baru. But

Stamford couldn't get approval for its project untilits directors met two men who were allegedlyMuhyiddin's business partners, Syed MokhtarAlbukhary and Datuk Yahaya Tabib.

The two arranged a meeting in Singapore betweenthe firm's representatives and the former chiefminister, the firm's documents allege. Within a year,Stamford and the three men had formed a 70-30

joint venture to developsome 724 hectares ofland. When the propertywas sold in 1994, theMuhyiddin group's initialinvestment of M$1.8million ($735,000) hadsoared to M$83 million.In the meantime,Muhyiddin's group had

become "very avaricious," according to thedocuments Stamford filed in court,and wanted to form a second joint venture in which

they would control 70% of the shares but would payStamford only M$74,100 per hectare for itsremaining 2,672 hectares, company officials charge.

When Stamford insisted on retaining its original70% and on being paid M$185,250 per hectare forits property, one of Muhyiddin's associates allegedly

warned the company that the land-acquisitionpapers were on the former chief minister's desk andcould be "signed at any time." Muhyiddin himselfallegedly threatened Stamford in December 1992 bytelling one of its directors that "time is gettingshort." In July 1994, the state government acquiredthe land on behalf of the Johor Islamic

Economic Development Corp. (MALAYSIA--- The Privileged FewBy Murray Hiebert in Kuala Lumpur, 6 July 1995,FarEastern Economic Review)

The facts of the matter as reported by RaphaelPura , AWSJ : In 1984, Stamford -- which is 90%owned by three families, the Singapore-based Seetfamily, and the Gan and Wang families fromMalaysia -- applied to the Johor government forpermission to develop a light industrial estate onpart of the land. Stamford, in its suit, claims nothinghappened until 1988. Then, Stamford directors metbusinessmen Syed Mokhtar and Datuk Yahaya, whosaid they were Tan Sri Muhyiddin's "close friendsand business associates," according to the Stamfordsuit.

According to Stamford's court submission, thecompany in late 1989 agreed with Syed Mokhtar andDatuk Yahaya, "acting for themselves and [Tan Sri

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Muhyiddin]," to create a joint-venture company todevelop 1,766 acres of Stamford's property. TheJohor trio, led by Syed Mokhtar, invested 1.8 millionringgit in the joint venture, taking 30% of its equity;Stamford held the remainder. The joint-venturecompany acquired the property from Stamford and

submitted a fresh application to convert it toindustrial use. The Johor government then approved

the conversion "speedily," Stamford says in its suitin which it also alleges that the Mokhtar group"made a clean profit of 83.2 million."

According to Stamford, the Mokhtar group in 1992approached Stamford's directors, proposing todevelop the remaining 6,520 acres of Stamford'sJohor property. This time, Stamford alleges, thegroup insisted on taking a 70% equity stake in anew joint venture and proposed that Stamford'sland be sold to the venture at 30,000 ringgit anacre. Stamford protested that it wanted to hold 70%of the venture and should be paid more than twicethat price for the land. (Malaysian Company

Continues Suit Challenging State Acquisition ofLand| By Raphael Pura - Staff Reporter of The WallStreet Journal | 16 June 1995,The Wall StreetJournal)

The case concluded in an out of court settlementThe land acquisition civil suit filed by a firm againstthe Johor government and several other parties wassettled today for a total of RM405 million. The HighCourt ordered Stamford Holdings Sdn Bhd to be paid

the amount for the acquisition of 6,544 acres of landbelonging to it.

The consent order was given by Justice Zainun Ali in

chambers.

Under the settlement, the Johor government is topay the plaintiff RM313.25 million while KelanaVentures Sdn Bhd was ordered to pay RM92.12million. Datuk V. Sivaparanjothi and Manjit Singhappeared for the plaintiff while Datuk Abdul AzizAbdul Rahim appeared for the Johor State

Government, Johor Baru Land Administrator andformer Mentri Besar Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin. Roger

Tan Kor Mee appeared for Perbadanan KemajuanEkonomi Islam Negeri Johor

The judge further ordered that all the civil suits, civilappeals and miscellaneous civil applications by theplaintiff be settled and disposed of. Thecompensation sum of RM313.25 million is to bedeposited in the High Court by or on behalf of theLand Administrator to be paid out to Stamford. Theadditional sum of RM92.11 million is to be paid toStamford by Kelana Ventures, which is one of theinterveners/defendants in the case. The payment isto be made in settlement of the compulsoryacquisition of the Stamford properties by the Land

Administrator on behalf of Kelana Ventures beforethe expiry of 18 months from the date of theconsent order.

The dispute between Stamford and the defendantsinvolved the whole of the Stamford properties in themukim of Tebrau, Johor Baru District and involved atotal of 6,544.4172 acres which were compulsorilyacquired.

Johor govt, parties to pay the sum for landcompulsorily acquired. s (Land case settled forRM405m. By JOTHI JEYASINGAM ,7 October 1999The Sun)

+++---ku2009/3/31 Dina Zama

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