Si Buaya Timur telah mengeluarkan aset di Swiss Bank pada 1999?

Ricky Zulkarnain

June 2011 dia telah mengistiharkan tidak mempunyai akaun Swiss Bank dalam dewan undangan negri Sarawak?

(BERN, SWITZERLAND). The Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland confirmed today that two family members of Taib Mahmud, the Chief Minister of Sarawak, held assets with a Swiss bank until 1999 when the assets were withdrawn.  

The Swiss prosecutors said they would not open a criminal procedure against four Swiss banks for their alleged support of a criminal organization because none of these banks were administering any Taib family assets as of today. 

The Swiss prosecutors' investigation had been triggered by a criminal complaint by the Bruno Manser Fund and by Swiss MP Carlo Sommaruga. It involved the accused banks and FINMA, the Swiss bank regulator.

The Bruno Manser Fund welcomes the Swiss prosecutors' declaration and calls on Sarawak Chief Minister Taib Mahmud to declare all foreign assets held by himself and his closest family mebers and explain their origins. 

In particular, there is a need to clarify the amount and whereabouts of the assets formerly held by a Swiss bank and withdrawn in 1999. 

In June 2011, Taib Mahmud declared in the Sarawak State Assembly that he had no Swiss bank account.

Research by the Bruno Manser Fund has shown that Taib Mahmud's closest family members are holding stakes in Malaysian corporations worth 1.5 billion USD and hundreds of millions of dollars in properties in Canada, the US, the UK and Australia. 

The Malaysian despot's total assets are estimated at 15 billion USD.

The Swiss prosecutors also confirmed today that a criminal procedure against UBS is still ongoing for the alleged laundering of 90 million USD on behalf on Musa Aman, Chief Minister of the Malaysian state of Sabah. 

The criminal procedure was opened in August 2012 following a criminal complaint by the Bruno Manser Fund.