by Ganesh Sahathevan
In 2016 and again in January 2019 The Australian reported:
John Holland’s parent company,
China Communications ConstructionCompany, was asked to inflate costs on a Malaysian project by about $US7.5bn
($10.4bn), more than doubling its cost, according to documents obtained by The
Australian.
The documents show that money siphoned off from the deal was to be used to
plug the multi-billion-dollar hole in Malaysia’s looted sovereign wealth fund,
1MDB, buy controlling stakes in two companies linked to the alleged
mastermind of the 1MDB fraud, Jho Low, and pay tens of millions of dollars to
unnamed consultants.
They also reveal the deal was pitched as “Malaysia’s acceptance of China’s One
Belt, One Road strategy” — an ambitious plan to project Beijing’s economic
power internationally by building billions of dollars worth of infrastructure
throughout Asia and Europe.
China agreed to finance the East Coast Rail Line, which was to link Kelantan,
near the border with Thailand on the northeast of the Malaysian peninsula, with
Port Klang, on the peninsula's western side near Kuala Lumpur, in November
2016.
The Australian reported on allegations the East Coast Rail Line contract had been inflated in August 2016, but is now able to reveal details of documents setting out the proposal. Last week, The Wall
Street Journal reported that Chinese officials offered to bail out 1MDB using
money siphoned off from infrastructure projects built in Malaysia as part of the
One Belt, One Road program.
(John Holland parent asked to inflate costs to plug $10.4bn 1MDB hole;By BEN BUTLER, BUSINESS REPORTER 12:00AM JANUARY 14, 2019
Over the past week prosecutors from Malaysia's Attorney General's Chambers presented evidence in the trial of former Prime Minister Najib Razak, who has been charged with offences relating to the 1MDB scandal , confirming the stories in The Australian going back to 2016 (see story below).
In May last year the Trudeau government of Canada blocked
China Communications ConstructionCompany takeover of Aecon Canada’s third largest construction company t for “national security” reasons.
Despite all of the above, John Holland
continues to win major projects from the NSW Government and remains a prominent donor.
Multiplex and John Holland have emerged as frontrunners to build the new stadium at the old Moore Park Allianz Stadium site , following developer Lendlease's sudden exit from the project in July.
The company does have a long history in Australia, but the CCCC takeover does change things.
END
Malaysia had plan to use Chinese money to bail out 1MDB, court hearsRozanna Latiff,
Joseph Sipalan
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysia’s former leader Najib Razak approved a plan to bail out troubled state fund 1MDB by offering stakes in several big infrastructure projects to Chinese firms in 2016, a former aide told a court on Wednesday.
FILE PHOTO: Former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak leaves Kuala Lumpur High Court in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia August 28, 2019. REUTERS/Lai Seng Sin
Najib, who was voted out of power last year amid public anger over alleged graft at 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), is on trial for allegedly receiving hundreds of millions of dollars from the state fund he set up in 2009.
He has pleaded not guilty.
Former special officer Amhari Effendi Nazaruddin said Najib sent him to China in June 2016 on a “secret mission” to reaffirm economic ties and investments between the two countries.
The talking points prepared for his meeting with Chinese officials showed there were plans to use Chinese investments to help pay off the debts of 1MDB and its former unit, SRC International, Amhari told the Kuala Lumpur High Court.
“The phrase ‘while simultaneously completely resolving 1MDB and SRC debts’ clearly meant that Najib intended to send the message that this cooperation would aid 1MDB and SRC International through the bailout of 1MDB’s debts,” Amhari said, referring to the talking points.
China has denied reports that its officials had offered to bail out 1MDB in 2016, saying it never attaches political conditions to its cooperation with other countries.
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Amhari said among the deals offered to Chinese companies to fund the bailout were two pipeline projects and the $20 billion East Coast Rail Link (ECRL), a major part of China’s Belt and Road initiative.
The pipeline projects were later canceled and the cost of the railway project nearly halved to $11 billion after Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad took over last year.
Mahathir, who swiftly reopened probes into 1MDB, has said investigators are looking into whether a $2.3 billion loan from the Export-Import Bank of China for the two pipeline projects was used to repay 1MDB debts.
China Communications Construction Co. Ltd, the lead contractor for the ECRL project, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Amhari’s testimony.
Amhari said his talking points were prepared by fugitive Malaysian financier Low Taek Jho, or Jho Low, who attended the meeting with Chinese officials as a translator.
Low, who faces charges in the United States and Malaysia over his alleged central role in the 1MDB scandal, has denied wrongdoing. His whereabouts are unknown.
“In summary, based on the situation that had unfolded and the documents prepared by Jho Low, I believe that Najib had knowledge and had given the mandate to Jho Low to plan and manage efforts to bail out 1MDB and SRC from its losses and debts,” Amhari said.
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Malaysian and U.S. investigators say that at least $4.5 billion was misappropriated from 1MDB by Low and other high-level officials of the fund and their associates.
Najib’s trial continues on Thursday.
Reporting by Rozanna Latiff and Joseph Sipalan; editing by Darren Schuettler
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The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
