MACC report made mentioning Dino Rais

It was made to understand an MACC report was lodged against Desmond Looh and Magic Telecom Sdn. Bhd. in the process of Numix Engineering Sdn. Bhd. acquiring 700MHz CDMA license from MCMC. Sources said the report was lodge by Numix Engineering Director Abdul Razak Mohd. Noor in MACC HQ Putrajaya.

It was said that the name ‘Dino b. Rais’ was mentioned in the report.

It was believed that stated somewhere in the report, monies were paid to Magic Telecom Sdn. Bhd. which include a sum not really specified and Desmond Looh, who had been alleged to be very close to Dino. Dino is the son of Minister of Information, Communications and Culture Dato’ Seri Utama Dr. Rais Yatim, Ph.D.

A different source explained that most probably Razak filed the report to protect himself since he was sued by Dino for defamation on a demand letter dated 2 November 2010, the same day the latter sued The Malay Mail and The News Straits Times for the report “Dino’s Son in Telco Suit” appeared on the cover of the ‘Paper that cares’. It was about Razak, Aishah Harun, Numix Engineering Sdn. Bhd. filing an injunction against Desmond Looh, Magic Telecom Sdn. Bhd. and Sejahtera Saluran Sdn. Bhd. at the Kuala Lumpur High Court on 22 October 2010.

It was said in the report, Razak alleged that a former Kuwait Finance House senior officer knew “Desmond Looh was very close to Dato’ Seri Utama Dr. Rais Yatim and an old friend of Desmond Looh’s father” and Looh was taken in on the newly formed Magic Telecom Sdn. Bhd.on the premise that:

1. He had sound financial standing

2. He was close to Dato’ Seri Utama Dr. Rais Yatim and showed the sms exhanges between the both of them to substantiate the claim

3. The closeness will enable the acquisition of the said CDMA spectrum license and all the licenses related to the venture

4. Looh also made a representation that Dino Rais is “To be employed in Magic Telecoms for technical and corporate exposure”

A company named Retroline Sdn. Bhd. was formed for the purpose of payment made to Dino Rais and he shall use the pseudonym of “Rahim Razlan” to cover his identity whilst under the payroll of Magic Telecoms. A detailed of list cheques paid to Dino and dates was believed to be furnished in the report to MACC. Dino was also sent to Chengdu, China 12-16 April 2010.

This MACC report corroborated earlier articles in the blogs insinuating that Rais’s son was involved the acquisition of certain spectrum licenses issued by MCMC, first raised on 8 October 2010. Rocky Bru picked some of these postings into his “Santa Rais” article posted on 9 October 2010, of which Rais reacted by lodging a Police report against Datuk Ahirudin “Rocky” Attan on 12 October 2010. MCMC was very swift in their investigations where the Police was asked by MCMC to confiscate his Acer “Ferrari” Notebook and Streamyx modem from his Puchong home, just 24 hours after the Police report was lodged in IPD Dang Wangi.

This episode attracted mainstream and new media attention to a point that Prime Minister Dato’ Seri Mohd. Najib Tun Razak made a remark “Terkilan” to what has developed by Monday 18 October 2010. The ‘Pandora’s Box’ on MCMC was further opened when issues serrounding the authority and utilisation of USP Funds was raised even in Parliament.

It was raised in public domain that Rais as the complainant, instructed the MCMC IO to call the suspect in the investigation Datuk Ahirudin Attan and Yours Truly (as the prosecution witness if and when the case goes to court) “To meet up for tea”. It was also made to understand that MCMC IO only took the statement of the complainant about two weeks ago, which is a month after Datuk Ahirudin was interviewed and had his statement taken. This is also should be a specific subject for MACC to investigate.

For the record, mainstream media already reported that MACC has also initiated investigation on the utilisation of the USP Funds, particularly in the 123, 000 units issued in the Phase 1 of the  ‘1 Malaysia Netbook’ program under the National Broadband Initiative.

It gets more interesting on how a case which could go unnoticed as a dispute between Razak and Looh was actually able to be resolved privately without this much attention had Rais did not react against Rocky. We believe this could only go more ugly as Razak’s, Aishah’s and Numix Engineering’s case against Looh, Magic Telecom and Sejahtera Selalu goes on hearing on 3 Dec 2010. Hopefully, some of the materials to be presented in the hearing were included in the MACC report to fully facilitate the investigation.

As Sherlock Holmes would say at this point, “The game’s a foot”.