- According to a report by investigative news site Sarawak Report, the Yaw family of Malaysia, the owners of the Samling timber group, have allegedly been channeling profits from their logging operations in Sarawak through a company called Sunchase Holdings, a multi-billion dollar real estate group based in Arizona, since the late 1980s.
- Today, Sarawak Report found, the group owns a vast amount of land, including several major planned community developments, and also has investments in mineral companies and science and technology enterprises, such as INTRIX, a Sacramento-based software company.
- “[T]he evidence shows that Sunchase was funded by the profits of timber corruption in Sarawak, authorised by Taib and channelled through Samling,” per the report.
Environmentalists are calling for US and Malaysian officials to investigate allegations that real estate investments in the United States worth billions of dollars may have been funded by proceeds from corrupt logging operations in Sarawak, a Malaysian state on the northwest coast of the island of Borneo.
According to a report by investigative news site Sarawak Report, the Yaw family of Malaysia, the owners of the Samling timber group, have allegedly been channeling profits from their logging operations in Sarawak through a company called Sunchase Holdings, a multi-billion dollar real estate group based in Arizona, since the late 1980s.
Sunchase Holdings was founded by Chee Siew Yaw, the son of Samling founder Yaw Teck Seng, in 1988. In 1993, Sunchase purchased real estate from the US government’s Resolution Trust Corporation for $2 billion.
Today, Sarawak Report found, the group owns a vast amount of land, including several major planned community developments, and also has investments in mineral companies and science and technology enterprises, such as INTRIX, a Sacramento-based software company.
“Research shows that over the past three decades the enterprise has invested billions of dollars in enormous developments, through a network of over 70 subsidiary companies in the United States, spanning new townships from Texas through to Colorado and even as far as Hawaii,” Sarawak Report said.
The Sunchase Group is currently managed by William A. Pope, a US national. The Yaw family sold its stake in Sunchase in 2006, but Sarawak Report said that its research shows that Mr. Pope, a former Sunchase employee, is merely acting as a stand-in for the Malaysian owners of the Sunchase portfolio.
Sarawak Report has also raised questions about Sarawak Governor Taib Mahmud’s interest in the Samling group and its American real estate investments. The Yaw family business flourished thanks to Samling being granted 1.2 million hectares (nearly 3 million acres) in timber concessions by Taib.
“[Pope] claims he is the owner of Sunchase and founded the company,” according to Sarawak Report. “However, we have identified him as a long-term agent of the logging giant Samling and its ultimate controlling individual, the Sarawak Governor Taib Mahmud.”
Sarawak Report said its research indicated that Pope was not the primary investor behind the company and therefore unlikely to be the ultimate beneficial owner.
“To the contrary, the evidence shows that Sunchase was funded by the profits of timber corruption in Sarawak, authorised by Taib and channelled through Samling,” per the report. “Those assets should therefore be restored, according to the foreign corrupt practices legislation of the United States.”
Timber license concessions cover 53 percent of Sarawak’s total land area, according to the World Resources Institute. More than 80 percent of the state’s forests have been heavily impacted by logging since 1973, research has shown.
Sarawak Report also first reported on the 1MDB scandal which has currently embroiled Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak in allegations that he mismanaged a state fund and possibly even used the fund to enrich himself.
In its report on Sunchase Holdings and the Yaw family, Sarawak Report not only called for investigations but for the repatriation of all the funds invested in the US so that they can benefit the people of Sarawak.
“It is time that Sarawak and Malaysia demanded these asset treasures back, so that this invested wealth can be employed to support public services in the state, which has been robbed for decades.”
The Swiss-based Bruno Manser Fund has joined in the call for investigations by US and Malaysian authorities.
“It is highly questionable that the Yaw family’s real estate assets in the United States were funded by legitimately earned, properly declared and taxed money,” Lukas Straumann, director of the Bruno Manser Fund, said in a statement.
“We expect Chief Minister Adenan Satem to hold the Yaw family to account for its unexplained wealth in the United States. All assets whose legal origin cannot be proven should be frozen and restituted to Sarawak whose forests have been ruthlessly exploited by Samling.“
We have identified plunder stolen from Sarawak by despot Taib Mahmud & timber crony Samlinghttps://t.co/46xzoVk6OG pic.twitter.com/GbnLpbU9Su
— Sarawak Report (@sarawak_report) April 26, 2016
Evidence shows that Sunchase was funded by the profits of timber corruption in Sarawak, authorised by Taib and channelled through Samling
— Sarawak Report (@sarawak_report) April 26, 2016
