Malaysia Flip Flop

THE MALAYSIAN ROGUE BANKER WHO WEAR’S SHEEP’S CLOTHING

Who are Nazir Razak & Azlina Aziz? How they cheated the rakyat’s money through CIMB Bank?

Datuk Seri Nazir Razak currently holds the CIMB group CEO position and has made headlines as the CEO of the year by the Malaysian-ASEAN Corporate Governance Index Awards 2013. As brother to Malaysia’s Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, questions arise as to whether his quick rise to success has to do with his brother’s position.

Nazir is often described as a humble business man who shies away from the limelight despite his success. Behind this fascade lies a tale that will shock most Malaysians.

Corruption and nepotism allegations have arisen due to Nazir’s lavish double life.

Pictured is the RM180 million ringgit mansion in Holland Park (one of the most posh areas in the United Kingdom) that is owned by Nazir Razak

NAZIR RAZAK IS QUITE THE CAR ENTHUSIAST, HE OWNS 12 POSH CARS FOR USE WHEN HE IS ON HOLIDAY IN THE UNITED KINGDOM, THESE RANGE
FROM BENTLEYS TO MAYBACH.

A snap shot of Nazir Razak’s extensive car collection in the UK.

His wife, Azlina Aziz comes from a respected family and her father is the former governor of Bank Negara, Tan Sri Aziz Taha. According to sources close to Azlina she has a weakness for designer brands, is a VVIP customer of Harrods in the UK and frequently visits Paris and Italy for shopping. Azlina is a recognized face at most designers’ boutiques in Paris, so much so that they actually provide private product viewings upon her request. Based from an undisclosed source, Azlina is a frequent flyer, she travels on day trips to Italy, Paris and other parts of Europe just to shop and to have tea not by commercial airlines but she flies using private jet. Most of the time Nazir will fly together with his wife in a private jet.

Azlina is believed to have the biggest collections of Hermes Birkin bags as she owns about 80 of them, which cost more minimum RM300,000 each. Apart from bags and clothes, Azlina has a love for gold and diamonds accessories. Azlina is often seen having tea in Harrods.

In CIMB Group’s annual report published in 2009, it was found that Azlina Aziz owned 400,000 unit of CIMB’s shares. This means that both husband and wife own about 28,353,261 unit of shares, valued at more than RM 30 million for financial year ended 31 December 2008. As for the year 2012, she owned a total of 8 million of shares valued at RM 1 per unit at the beginning of the year and disposed 4 million of shares during that financial year. This means that she still had 4 million shares left by the end of 2012. According to the 2012 annual report, Azlina is the only spouse of the CIMB Group’s directors with company shares. This amount is questionable.

Marissa & Amran, children of Nazir Razak & Azlina Aziz that studies
in Elite schools in United Kingdom

Nazir’s daughter studies at an elite school in Oxford, the Headington, which cost more than RM 350,000 per year. Questions arise as to why Nazir can’t send his children to schools in Malaysia, like Pakatan Rakyat’s leaders do? Nazir Razak has been spotted on family trips around the world where no expense is spared. The family stays in 5-star hotels and dines at posh restaurants.

Nazir Razak makes sure that his mistress, Lynn Goh gets a piece of the cake. According to inside sources Lynn is the gate keeper of CIMB. Everyone in CIMB respects her due to her ‘close’ relationship with Nazir Razak.

In 2004, Lynn Goh was voted the “Best Investor Relations Representative” in CIMB Finance Asia Survey and that is how her journey as a mistress of Nazir Razak started. She has won numerous awards for best investor relations of course this is not difficult when you are the mistress of a well-connected CEO. It is an open secret that one way to

get access to Nazir is to give Lynn Goh an award. It is not a secret that Nazir can assert his influence as he sits on various boards.

Our sources confirm that Nazir sees Lynn as capable in the investment room and the bedroom. Lynn was always at Nazir’s side but this of course came at a price.

Lynn has an appetite for the finer things in life. Lynn lives in a multi-million ringgit bungalow in Bukit Damansara which was paid by Nazir Razak. Through the years, she has received huge sums from Nazir for being his right hand and mistress. Their relationship ended in 2013 due to what inside sources term as a disagreement over money.

Questions arise as tohow the Group CEO of CIMB who earns RM900,000 a month is able to afford a lavish life like this? His salary alonewould not be able to finance his RM180 million ringgit mansion in Holland Park let alone his wife’s love for shopping. It is clear that in order tofinance his wife’s lavish lifestyle he has used his position in CIMB to swindle money into his own pocket.

Nazir Razak was known for his infamous controversial acquisition of Southern Bank, a private Chinese-run bank where he tried to merge the private bank with a Bumiputera bank. Nazir failed to pursuit Southern Bank’s owner, Tan Sri Tan Teong Hean and he then turned to Chua Ma Yu, who managed to architect the whole down fall of Southern Bank.

Nazir Razak managed to form CIMB and it was reported Nazir managed to use an acrimonious $1.8 billion to take over the bank and split its board. A former Southern Bank

director mentioned that CIMB pulled political strings in the deal in order to prevent Maybank that offered a better value for the shareholders from bidding. This paved the way for Nazir’s rise at the expense of a respected Chinese entrepreneur. This was only the beginning.

CIMB group was transformed into a Government-linked company (GLC) bank under Nazir’s watch and he made billions of ringgit by using his brother, the prime minister of Malaysia’s name. As the group CEO for CIMB, Nazir managed has made tremendous profits. It is no wonder he prefers to avoids the limelight. One such example is Synergy Drive Sdn Bhd a new company that was seed-funded by CIMB was said to be intentionally created solely for the purpose of undertaking merger and divest it to foreigners for a profit.

Azlina Aziz and her family at their posh residence in London.

It bought the assets and liabilities of three companies, as well as five of their six subsidiaries. In 2006, Synergy Drive Sdn Bhd offered RM31.4 billion on the table to merge Sime Darby Bhd, Kumpulan Guthrie Bhd and Golden Hope Plantations Bhd to create the world’s largest publicly traded oil company with a total annual revenue of RM26 billion. Nazir Razak was said to put the fees of this deal over the interest of the company. Through this, Nazir Razak has successfully pocketed millions of ringgit at the expense of the tax payers.

Besides that, CIMB was also involved in a project with Malaysia Airlines (MAS) where Nazir took advantage and reaped millions of ringgit at the expense of the Malaysian people. In the MAS-AirAsia swap deal in August 2011, Nazir’s group acted as the adviser of the deal and Khazanah Holdings Bhd traded off 20.5% of Malaysia Airlines’ shares for 10% of AirAsia and then agreed to buy another 10% AirAsia X’s shares for an undisclosed price.

This was an unfair deal as AirAsia was in huge debt at that time while MAS has a large number of fixed assets. Millions of tax payers’ money was used in the deal but the shares were terminated barely 8 months after that. Despite the termination, Nazir’s group pocketed the adviser’s fees.

Think about it, why were reports released as to the illegality of the price fixing months later? How did overpaid lawyers miss this gaping loophole when structuring the deal? Nazir got his brokerage fee, the Malaysian people paid for it.

In the same year, Nazir brokered the Sime Darby- E&O deal where Sime Darby acquired a 30% stake in E&O for RM 766 million. The deal was riddled with irregularities as shares values were overvalued, packaged and sold.

Nazir raked in millions in profit. Nazir is an opportunist and he never let go of any good chance to grab profits. Last year, Nazir through CIMB Group is trying to buy over stakes in San Miguel Corporation’s Bank of Commerce in Philippines. It was reported that CIMB Group had decided to pursue a deal worth nearly US$ 300 mil (RM 944.25 mil) to buy a 58% stake in Bank of Commerce.

Nazir Razak was also the adviser for the IPO listing of Integrated Healthcare Holding (IHH) deal through CIMB. Nazir Razak advised Khazanah Nasional that in order for any individual bumiputera to take up shares they must have a at least a net asset of RM 3 miilion and RM 250,000 cash in hand. As for bumiputera companies, a requirement of RM 10 million worth of assets was set in order to take up shares. The IPO was structured in this way so that only rich bumiputeras would be able to obtain shares.

Nazir projects himself his stand as being against corruption. He often makes statements stating that corruption is blocking Malaysia from achieving it’s status as a high income nation. They say that the greatest place to hide is the last place that your enemies will look in this case in plain site. His business ethics is questionable and if there is one word to define it it’s definitely the word traitor.

The irony is that Nazir carries out what he himself preaches against. The MCCC should look into his lavish lifestyle and investigate the deals awarded to him.