KUALA LUMPUR – Former finance minister Tun Daim Zainuddin’s wife, Toh Puan Naimah Khalid, and his sons – Muhammad Amin Zainuddin and Muhammad Amir Zainuddin – are said to be beneficiaries of a trust with US$52.5 million (RM247.5 million) in assets, eclipsing his assets listed in the Pandora Papers.
According to leaked records from a Cayman Islands financial services firm, Naimah had set up ZA Star Trust in 2010, with investments in three British Virgin Islands companies.
Of the three, two companies own properties in London, including an eighth-floor office building near St. Paul’s Cathedral, which was bought in 2014 for US$50.8 million, reported the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.
The remaining company indirectly owns shares in nine entities registered in Delaware and Massachusetts, US. These entities had investments in hotels, parking lots, and other commercial and residential properties.
Based on ZA Star Trust’s financial statements, it received a US$47 million loan from Adam Zeta Trust, but no further details on ownership or the loan were available.
Currently, Daim is being investigated by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) over the revelations in the Pandora Papers, which linked him and his proxies to offshore businesses worth at least US$31 million.
The Cayman leak also showed that Naimah’s trust administrator, Genesis Trust & Corporate Services Ltd, listed the entity as “high risk” due to its connection to Daim, who was finance minister from 1984 to 1991.
Genesis is one of 135 trust companies active in the Caymans. It was bought over by a US firm called Highvern in 2022.
Earlier, sources said the MACC probe into Daim would include his role in the 1998 over-the-counter stock-trading system in Singapore known as CLOB (Central Limit Order Book) as well as “forced divestments” by those on the opposing political divide.
On Tuesday, Daim’s legal team, led by former attorney-general Tan Sri Tommy Thomas, went to the high court here to challenge MACC’s probe.
MACC’s investigation into Daim was opened nearly a year ago, in February 2023, based on the mention of his name in the 2021 Pandora Papers. No charges have been brought against him yet.
Thomas said the anti-graft agency’s probe was “prejudicial”, given that Daim had left public office 22 years ago, besides his old age. The lawyer also said MACC’s “delayed investigation” was to “fish” for evidence.
Daim is said to be recuperating at Assunta Hospital, Petaling Jaya. His medical team said he is in no shape to be questioned. – January 18, 2024