SOALAN CEPU MAS PADA PENGHUJUNGNYA.
THIS IS FROM THAT FINANCE TWITTER GUY. NAMES HAVE BEEN ALTERED.
In May 2015, [PERSON A] warned [INSTITUTION A] to cancel its land purchase from [COMPANY A] ([COMPANY A – FULL NAME]). He disagreed that the country’s Pilgrims’ Fund was being used to bail out [COMPANY A] – purchasing a small 1.56 acre of [PROJECT A] land for RM188.5 million, when an area 45 times bigger (70 acres) was purchased by [COMPANY A] for only RM194.1 million.
[INSTITUTION A] was set up about 55 years ago to help Muslims in the country save up for the hajj, a pilgrimage to Mecca they are obligated to perform at least once. Over the decades, the fund board gained respect in the Islamic world for its management of the savings and Shariah-compliant investments, enabling over 30,000 Malaysian Muslims to perform Hajj every year.
Flushed with cash, the fund, however, caught a pair of glowing greedy eyes of former Prime Minister [PERSON B], who decided to secretly milk it. In December 2015, [PERSON C], Governor of [INSTITUTION B] (Central Bank) sent two letters to the chairman of the fund, [PERSON D], and copied them to the Prime Minister, who was also the Finance Minister.
The letters warned that the pilgrims’ fund was on the brink of collapse and a massive bail out by taxpayers may be required. Governor [PERSON C] also warned that the fund’s obligations far exceed its assets, as she observed that [INSTITUTION A] was paying out far more than it had made in profits in recent years, in the form of excessive “dividends” and “bonuses”.
It would take slightly more than two years to discover the horror story of the [INSTITUTION A] financial situation. All hell broke loose after the stunning downfall of the [POLITICAL PARTY COALITION A] regime in May 2018. By December that very same year, it was found that the Pilgrims’ Fund was “insolvent” – a polite word to declare that the Malay Muslim institution was bankrupt.
The new [POLITICAL COALITION B] government of [PERSON A] had to refrain from announcing the bankruptcy of [INSTITUTION A] for fear of spooking the depositors. It would do more harm than good. After all, if 4-million Malays were gullible enough to vote for [PERSON B]’s regime despite the exposure of [COMPANY A] scandal, chances are they would not understand why [INSTITUTION A] could go bust.
It was ultimately revealed in December 2018 that [POLITICAL PARTY A]-led [POLITICAL COALITION A] government, with endorsement from the [POLITICAL PARTY B] Islamist party to a certain extent, had transformed [INSTITUTION A] into a Ponzi “get-rich-quick” scheme. As it turned out, there was a reason why the fund could distribute “hibah (dividends)” ranging from 6.25% up to 8.25% in the period between 2013 and 2017 under the [PERSON B] administration.
At a time when fixed deposit rates were at about only 3%, the unbelievable dividend returns from [INSTITUTION A] were so attractive that a single depositor had invested more than RM190 million in the fund. But it was just the appetizer. A report prepared by government-appointed accounting firm [ACCOUNTING FIRM A] ([ACCOUNTING FIRM A – ABBREVIATION]) to review the financial position for 2017 unveiled more juicy stories.
[INSTITUTION A] was actually sitting on top of up to RM10.2 billion in losses of its domestic and international equities as of October 2018. Its liabilities outstripped assets by RM9 billion. A report says – “The gap between the assets and liabilities is RM9 billion. If the RM9 billion hole is not covered, no ‘hibah (dividends)’ distribution is possible not just for 2018 but also in the coming years.”
Exactly how did the [PERSON B] government bankrupt [INSTITUTION A]? It had lost RM5.7 billion in [INSTITUTION C] alone. [INSTITUTION C – FULL NAME] was forced to write off huge sums of money after its subsidiary, [COMPANY B], went on an aggressive overseas diversification spree, including the purchase of the [PROPERTY A] in Kuching for RM160 million – despite valuation of the property at only RM80 million.
Similar overpriced acquisitions occurred internationally, including the [PROPERTY B] in London for a whopping RM524 million in 2013 – overpaid approximately RM180 million. Worse, the recipient companies only accounted for roughly RM448 million, leaving RM76 million untraceable. Clearly, the top management of both [INSTITUTION C] and [INSTITUTION A] had plundered the Malay institutions.
But that was nothing compared to the RM2.77 billion acquisition of a 37% non-controlling stake in Indonesia’s [COMPANY C] in 2015 – overpaid a massive premium of over 95% relative to the market price of the shares. The company was owned by Indonesian billionaire [PERSON E], a close friend and associate of [PERSON B]. [INSTITUTION C] said [PERSON B] cheated it into investing in his tycoon friend’s [COMPANY D].
It was also not a coincidence that [INSTITUTION A] and [INSTITUTION C], not to mention [INSTITUTION D], [INSTITUTION E], [INSTITUTION F], [INSTITUTION G] and whatnot were similarly milked and plundered at the period when the [COMPANY A] scandal was exposed and needed bailout. Yes, to cover up the [COMPANY A] scandal, disgraced [PERSON B] sold not only national strategic assets such as power plants, lands like [PROJECT B] and projects like [PROJECT C] to China in exchange for kickbacks, but also actively raping the Pilgrims’ Fund.
Under [PERSON B] government, [INSTITUTION A] also made losses of RM670 million from its attempt to rescue [COMPANY E] and RM144 million from buying 30% of [COMPANY F]’s ownership (a company linked to [PERSON B]’s partner-in-crime [PERSON F]), not to mention RM1.1 billion losses in [COMPANY G] investment. The fund also did not record an impairment totalling RM227.81 million against investments in three subsidiary companies, primarily [COMPANY H].
[PERSON B] and other so-called [POLITICAL PARTY A] defenders of Malay, Islam and Monarch knew that like the [COMPANY A] scandal, the [INSTITUTION A] scandal was too complicated for the Malays and Muslims to understand. Even if they understood, which they don’t, the Malays would easily forgive fellow Malays under the pretext of Malay unity and Muslim Brotherhood.
To cover up the financial trouble of [INSTITUTION A], extraordinary “hibah (dividends)” were declared. Crooked [PERSON B] dared not reveal the true financial health, as his mismanagement and incompetence will be exposed. The pilgrim’s fund had been illegally distributing “hibah” to depositors since 2014, contravening the [INSTITUTION A] Act 1995 where the fund is not allowed to declare dividends if its liabilities are more than assets.
Ahead of the 14th general election on May 9, 2018, the pilgrim’s fund even cooked its books to justify paying a 6.25% dividend, amounting to RM2.7 billion. The Pilgrims’ Fund Chairman, [PERSON D], had conspired with the board of directors to dip their hands into depositors’ savings to pay the dividends. And [PERSON B] knew all along about the Ponzi scheme.
The ignorant [INSTITUTION A] depositors actually applauded [PERSON B] for the handsome “hibah”, which went up to as high as 8.25%, without realising that the dividends paid were their own money used to pay themselves. And [POLITICAL PARTY A] could afford to scam them successfully because out of 9.3 million depositors, only 30,000 would use their money in [INSTITUTION A] to perform Hajj every year.
The depositor who had invested more than RM190 million in the fund would have made a cool RM15.675 million for doing nothing in the year it yielded 8.35% of dividend. But a Ponzi scheme is unsustainable. The [INSTITUTION A]’s Recovery and Restructuring Working Plan revealed the stunning high concentration of depositors to a small segment where 1.3%, or a mere 117,000 of them (depositors), contributed to 50% of its deposits.
This means if the small number of powerful and rich depositors pull out, the scheme would definitely collapse. Overstated profits, understated value of assets, unbalanced profile of depositors and questionable transactions were all uncovered in the review of the financial position of [INSTITUTION A] back in 2018.
In April 2019, [INSTITUTION A] announced a “hibah (dividend)” of 1.25% – the lowest in the history – for the financial year 2018. Even at 1.25%, the payout was at a staggering RM913 million to its 9.3 million depositors. [PERSON A] government also announced that it will allocate RM500 million in 2020 for the Pilgrims’ Fund and RM1.73 billion every year until all of its “sukuk” (Shariah-compliant bonds) were redeemed.
How could [INSTITUTION A] suddenly become as healthy as a horse overnight? Two words – Bail Out!! As of January 1, 2019, the Islamic Pilgrimage Fund [INSTITUTION A] was placed under [INSTITUTION B] (Central Bank). A Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) was created to nurse and rehabilitate the insolvent fund. In short, taxpayers’ money to the tune of RM20 billion was used in the bail out exercise.
Even as then-Finance Minister [PERSON G] cracked his head squeezing every Ringgit to bail out [INSTITUTION A], crooks from [POLITICAL PARTY A] and [POLITICAL PARTY B] spread baseless and fake news that the hajj pilgrims fund board was under the control of Chinese-based [POLITICAL PARTY C]. The depositors should be grateful that the fund is guaranteed by the government, unlike entities like [COMPANY I].
Worse, in what appears to be an insult to the good name of Islam, the previous government of [POLITICAL PARTY A] Malay nationalist party which was heavily supported by the [POLITICAL PARTY B] Islamist party had cooked the [INSTITUTION A] accounting books by selling its shares in [COMPANY J] to show a profit and then repurchasing the same shares – a breach of listing of stock exchange and cheating of the highest order.
An independent report – “Financial Position Review of TH” by [ACCOUNTING FIRM A] – showed that the troubled pilgrims fund made a gain of RM553 million from the disposal of the [COMPANY J] shares in 2017 and subsequently bought back within four days after trade date at the same price sold through 4 brokers – [BROKER A], [BROKER B], [BROKER C] and [BROKER D].
But since the so-called RM553 million gains were “fake”, former [INSTITUTION A] chairman [PERSON D], also a Member of Parliament of [POLITICAL PARTY A], had conspired with the board of directors to dip their hands into depositors’ savings to pay the dividends. This created an illusion that the fund was paying an incredible high return when in fact it came from depositors’ hard-earned money.
The scam would have continued had the old [POLITICAL PARTY A] regime won the 2018 general election. The Ponzi scheme was working incredibly well based on the assumption that “not every depositor” would withdraw their money in [INSTITUTION A]. The get-rich-quick scheme would be discovered as the bubble would burst eventually due to insufficient funds – liabilities outstripped assets by RM9 billion.
Had the [PERSON A]-led [POLITICAL COALITION B] failed to defeat the long ruling [POLITICAL COALITION A] government in 2018, the Ponzi Scheme would have continued till today. When you have 9.3 million depositors, but only 30,000 use their money in [INSTITUTION A] to perform Hajj every year, what [PERSON B] and his band of crooks needed to do was to pay dividends using the depositors’ own money – to create an illusion that they received extraordinary “hibah”.
After you minus 30,000 from 9,300,000 depositors, the money left in [INSTITUTION A] was pretty substantial and could still be used to pay dividends for ages using [PERSON B]’s Ponzi scheme. As a yardstick, it was discovered that the hard-earned savings fund for Muslims to perform the mandatory hajj pilgrimage should have RM64 billion in assets, but had been found to be short of RM4 billion in deposits in 2016.
Theoretically, based on the RM60 billion left in 2016, [INSTITUTION A] could still pay its same number of depositors the same rate of dividend of 6.25% for at least another 22 years – using the depositors’ own money to pay themselves – till zero Ringgit left. After [POLITICAL COALITION B] government collapsed in 2020 after just 22 months in power, backdoor Prime Minister [PERSON H] set up a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) on October 8, 2021.
The RCI report dated July 19, 2022 was then presented to Yang di-Pertuan Agong (King) on August 30, 2022, when [POLITICAL PARTY A] vice-president [PERSON I] was the Prime Minister. Even then, the RCI only dared to say the crisis was due to [INSTITUTION A]’s “creative accounting practices” in order to enable it to declare high dividends. It also revealed how unauthorised bonuses totalling more than RM2.19 million were paid to 24 persons.
Still, the burning question is why PM [PERSON J] has only decided to declassify the 211-page [INSTITUTION A] RCI report three days before the Negeri Sembilan state election in July 2026 – nearly four years after its completion in July 2022? It’s not rocket science that despicable [PERSON J] was hiding the scandal to protect [POLITICAL PARTY A] – till [POLITICAL PARTY A] declared war with [PERSON J]’s [POLITICAL COALITION B] in the Johor and Negeri Sembilan state elections.
MY COMMENTS.
SOALAN CEPU MAS KHUSUS BAGI ORANG MELAYU. JADI SEKARANG WHAT WILL HAPPEN? APAKAH TINDAKAN YANG AKAN DIAMBIL? Prime Minister [PERSON B] SUDAH MASUK PENJARA SAMPAI MATI SEBAB DIA CURI DUIT DUA ATAU TIGA BILION.
TAPI PONZI SCHEME INI PULA TELAN 5.7 BILION, 9 BILION, 20 BILION BAILOUT DSBNYA.
SETAKAT INI TIDAK ADA SEEKOR PUN LEMBAGA HITAM H@R@MJ@D@H DIDAKWA DI MAHKAMAH ATAU DI MASUK DALAM PENJARA.
SO KPD ORANG MELAYU DENGAR BAIK-BAIK. ANDA SEDANG DILIWAT SEKALI LAGI. YOU ARE BEING BUGGERED.
WHY? SEBAB TUAN-TUAN TIDAK FAHAM APA YANG MEREKA TELAH BUAT.
