Taib Mahmud’s son has more than enough to pay ex-wife, accountant tells court
The Malaysian Insider – 24 minutes agoRELATED CONTENT
- Taib Mahmud’s son has more than enough to pay ex-wife, accountant tells court
A chartered accountant hired to look into the assets of Datuk Seri Mahmud Abu Bekir Abdul Taib told the Shariah High Court that based on his total assets, the Sarawak governor's son had more than enough to pay the RM100 million his ex-wife was seeking in Islamic conciliatory gift or 'mutaah'.
Andrew Heng, partner in Ferrier Hodgson MH Sdn Bhd, who was hired by Shahnaz Majid, reiterated his previous testimony that Mahmud Abu Bekir's total assets were valued at between RM976 million and RM1.395 billion.
"Based on my report, there is more than enough. Just look at his shareholding in Cahaya Mata Sawarak alone, the share is trading at RM9 currently," Heng said during re-examination by Shahnaz’s lawyer Akbardin Abdul Kader.
Heng had previously testified that Mahmud Abu Bekir had shares in 49 companies, although he added that nothing was known of the value of 18 of the 49 companies as these entities are currently exempted from filing audited financial statements to the Companies Commission of Malaysia.
He had also told the court that Mahmud Abu Bekir's shares in four palm oil estates in Sarawak had an estimated value of between RM636 million and RM1.05 billion.
Today, Heng said the report he prepared detailing Mahmud Abu Bekir's assets was based on publicly available documents and not on conjecture.
At a previous hearing, Heng was asked by defence counsel Saadiah Din if he had personally visited the palm oil plantations in Sarawak, to which Heng replied that he had not. Saadiah then suggested that the report on Mahmud Abu Bekir's assets value was wrong, which Heng denied.
Today, Heng said that he arrived at the value of the oil palm plantation assets using the comparison method of neighbouring plantations based on past valuations done by registered land valuers.
He said this was an accepted practice in his line of work.
He also said that it was accepted practice that he did not have to get any feedback from Mahmud Abu Bekir to come up with a report on his financial standing.
Shahnaz, the sister of popular singer Datuk Sheila Majid and Mahmud Abu Bekir, the son of Sarawak governor Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud, married in January 1992 and have a 20-year-old son, Raden Murya.
Mahmud Abu Bekir filed for divorce in May 2011.
The trial before judge Muhamad Abdul Karim Wahab continues on May 26. – May 5, 2014.
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