IN a surprise move last week, the company at the centre of Felda’s latest scandal volunteered to hand over plots of land it received in a suspicious deal two years ago.

But instead of bringing the issue to a close, this sparked more burning questions from Felda’s critics, such as Pandan MP Rafizi Ramli and Anak, a group representing Felda settlers.

Ownership of the 16 plots of land, worth RM270 million, was transferred to Synergy Promenade Sdn Bhd (SPSB). The firm was appointed by Felda to build the Kuala Lumpur Vertical City (KLVC) project on the lots in Jalan Semarak.

The transaction was considered dubious by legal experts as normally, a developer is only hired to build the project while ownership remains with the original owner. 

Felda did not receive a single sen in the land transfer.

Following a flurry of police reports and assurances of an investigation from the government, SPSB said last week it would return ownership of the land to Felda at no cost.

Arguably, the biggest question still is:

* Are heads going to roll over the transfer?

This is because, as Felda chairman Shahrir Samad said, the transfer was known and approved by members of Felda’s board and officers in subsidiary Felda Investment Corporation (FIC).

But critics have also said senior government officials would have known about the transfer given that Felda is such an important agency and the land concerned was government-owned.  

From the offset, Shahrir said there were elements of fraud in the deal and lodged a police report over it.

To date, police have questioned several individuals, including Mohd Isa Samad, the Felda chairman at the time of the deal.

Shahrir said the police investigation will continue even as Felda gets its land back.

* Who are Abd Rahman Soltan and Noraini Soltan?

Rafizi said these two are the registered as owners of SPSB, according to the firm’s 2015 financial statements filed with the Companies Commission in October 2017.   

Each had shares amounting to RM7.5 million respectively in the company as of December 2015.

According to its financial statements, the little-known company’s assets included a luxury car worth about RM615,000, computers (RM9,000) and office equipment (RM13,000), Rafizi said.

The statements also revealed that both directors had about RM100 million in the Pilgrim Fund’s Board (Tabung Haji) and a bank.     

* How did SPSB, a little known developer, manage to get ownership of the land in the first place? How did it land the plum KLVC project?

Rafizi alleged that SPSB’s records show that the company did not register any land as its assets. But what it does have is RM100 million in cash in Tabung Haji and the bank.

He asked whether the directors transferred ownership of the Jalan Semarak land to themselves and used it as collateral to get a RM100 million bank loan.

* Why is Felda still in business with SPSB?

Shahrir said the KLVC project will continue even with the police probe hanging over the entire issue. He said the terms of the project would be renegotiated.

Under the current agreement, Felda would get a minimum guaranteed return of RM500 million or 10% of the project’s gross development value, whichever is higher.

But Anak president Mazlan Aliman asked why Felda is still in business with SPSB.

The firm allegedly misused the power of attorney given to it – when it was appointed as KLVC’s developer – to transfer ownership of the land to itself.

According to Mazlan, even if SPSB decided to return ownership of the land, why would Felda want to continue dealing with such a company.

* Will Malaysians ever know the truth?

Prime Minister Najib Razak has pledged that the government will get to the bottom of this scandal. He said a forensic audit will be carried out to determine how the land transfer occurred.

But PKR asked whether such an exercise will be “just another 1MDB”.

The auditor-general investigated debt-ridden state investor 1Malaysia Development Berhad but its findings have been classified under the Official Secrets Act.

Yesterday, PKR’s No. 2 Azmin Ali failed in his court bid to get the government to unseal the attorney-general’s 1MBD investigation.

So even if investigations are completed on the Jalan Semarak deal, will Malaysians ever get to know what actually transpired. – January 25, 2018.