The Stamford Land Conspiracy Matter

Just in case you thought No.2 is squeaky clean The Muhyiddin-Stamford Land Conspiracy Matter The following are excerpts from various reports about a matter heard in the mid90s, in which Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin and others were sued by property developer Stamford Holdings S/B: Stamford Holdings Sdn. Bhd. has sued Muhyiddin Yassin, chief minister of the Johor state, and businessmen Yahya Talib and Syed Mokhtar Albukhary for damages for alleged conspiracy in acquiring land in Johor through the Land Acquisition Act, the Bernama national news agency reported Friday. According to Bernama, Stamford Holdings claimed the three had abused provisions of the Act to acquire its 6,600 acres of land through the Johor State Islamic Economic Development Corporation. The suit was filed at the Kuala Lumpur High Court early this month but was transferred Friday to the Johor Baru High Court, Bernama said. Stamford Holdings also named the Johor state government as a defendant in the suit, alleging that Muhyiddin and the two businessmen conspired to use the state government's authority to acquire the land. According to the news report, Stamford Holdings wants the court to declare that the Johor State Islamic Economic Development Corporation was not entitled to invoke provisions of the Land Acquisition Act to acquire a private landed property. (Malaysia's Stamford Sues Minister, Businessmen - Report 17 February 1995) The facts of the matter as reported by Murray Hiebert , FEER: Stamford's court documents insist that the company's relationship with the former chief minister dates back to 1988. Four years earlier, the firm had tried to develop some of its huge land holdings near the state capital of Johor Baru. But Stamford couldn't get approval for its project until its directors met two men who were allegedly Muhyiddin's business partners, Syed Mokhtar Albukhary and Datuk Yahaya Tabib. The two arranged a meeting in Singapore between the firm's representatives and the former chief minister, the firm's documents allege. Within a year, Stamford and the three men had formed a 70-30 joint venture to develop some 724 hectares of land. When the property was sold in 1994, the Muhyiddin group's initial investment of M$1.8 million ($735,000) had soared to M$83 million. In the meantime, Muhyiddin's group had become "very avaricious," according to the documents Stamford filed in court, and wanted to form a second joint venture in which they would control 70% of the shares but would pay Stamford only M$74,100 per hectare for its remaining 2,672 hectares, company officials charge. When Stamford insisted on retaining its original 70% and on being paid M$185,250 per hectare for its property, one of Muhyiddin's associates allegedly warned the company that the land-acquisition papers were on the former chief minister's desk and could be "signed at any time." Muhyiddin himself allegedly threatened Stamford in December 1992 by telling one of its directors that "time is getting short." In July 1994, the state government acquired the land on behalf of the Johor Islamic

Economic Development Corp. (MALAYSIA --- The Privileged Few By Murray Hiebert in Kuala Lumpur 6 July 1995,Far Eastern Economic Review) The facts of the matter as reported by Raphael Pura , AWSJ : In 1984, Stamford -- which is 90% owned by three families, the Singapore-based Seet family, and the Gan and Wang families from Malaysia -- applied to the Johor government for permission to develop a light industrial estate on part of the land. Stamford, in its suit, claims nothing happened until 1988. Then, Stamford directors met businessmen Syed Mokhtar and Datuk Yahaya, who said they were Tan Sri Muhyiddin's "close friends and business associates," according to the Stamford suit. According to Stamford's court submission, the company in late 1989 agreed with Syed Mokhtar and Datuk Yahaya, "acting for themselves and [Tan Sri Muhyiddin]," to create a joint-venture company to develop 1,766 acres of Stamford's property. The Johor trio, led by Syed Mokhtar, invested 1.8 million ringgit in the joint venture, taking 30% of its equity; Stamford held the remainder. The joint-venture company acquired the property from Stamford and submitted a fresh application to convert it to industrial use. The Johor government then approved the conversion "speedily," Stamford says in its suit in which it also alleges that the Mokhtar group "made a clean profit of 83.2 million." According to Stamford, the Mokhtar group in 1992 approached Stamford's directors, proposing to develop the remaining 6,520 acres of Stamford's Johor property. This time, Stamford alleges, the group insisted on taking a 70% equity stake in a new joint venture and proposed that Stamford's land be sold to the venture at 30,000 ringgit an acre. Stamford protested that it wanted to hold 70% of the venture and should be paid more than twice that price for the land. (Malaysian Company Continues Suit Challenging State Acquisition of Land | By Raphael Pura - Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal | 16 June 1995,The Wall Street Journal) The case concluded in an out of court settlement The land acquisition civil suit filed by a firm against the Johor government and several other parties was settled today for a total of RM405 million. The High Court ordered Stamford Holdings Sdn Bhd to be paid the amount for the acquisition of 6,544 acres of land belonging to it. The consent order was given by Justice Zainun Ali in chambers. Under the settlement, the Johor government is to pay the plaintiff RM313.25 million while Kelana Ventures Sdn Bhd was ordered to pay RM92.12 million. Datuk V. Sivaparanjothi and Manjit Singh appeared for the plaintiff while Datuk Abdul Aziz Abdul Rahim appeared for the Johor State Government, Johor Baru Land Administrator and former Mentri Besar Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin. Roger Tan Kor Mee appeared for Perbadanan Kemajuan Ekonomi Islam Negeri Johor.

The judge further ordered that all the civil suits, civil appeals and miscellaneous civil applications by the plaintiff be settled and disposed of. The compensation sum of RM313.25 million is to be deposited in the High Court by or on behalf of the Land Administrator to be paid out to Stamford. The additional sum of RM92.11 million is to be paid to Stamford by Kelana Ventures, which is one of the interveners/defendants in the case. The payment is to be made in settlement of the compulsory acquisition of the Stamford properties by the Land Administrator on behalf of Kelana Ventures before the expiry of 18 months from the date of the consent order. The dispute between Stamford and the defendants involved the whole of the Stamford properties in the mukim of Tebrau, Johor Baru District and involved a total of 6,544.4172 acres which were compulsorily acquired. Johor govt, parties to pay the sum for land compulsorily acquired. s (Land case settled for RM405m. By JOTHI JEYASINGAM ,7 October 1999 The Sun) +++ ---ku2009/3/31 Dina Zaman