Declassified LCS audit confirms Rafizi’s claims, including allegations against minister and ‘spouse’

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 22 — Several revelations made by PKR deputy president Rafizi Ramli in connection with the littoral combat ship (LCS) scandal have been confirmed as true following the release of the project’s forensic audit report tonight.

According to the report, a payment of RM23.37 million to several companies that claimed to provide technical evaluations related to the procurement of six Second Generation Patrol Vessels (SGPV) appeared to be fake.

“Invoices for such non-existing services were used as a mode to siphon out the funds, as these companies had provided false addresses on their invoices and the payment was diverted elsewhere.

“One of such companies belonged to the same person who was involved in Alizes Marine. The entire money released for Alizes Marine was suspected to be received by a company registered in Labuan,” the report stated.

Earlier today, Rafizi said that the purported “big shark” involved in the LCS scandal was Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Special Functions), Datuk Abdul Latiff Ahmad, and his alleged spouse, Zainab Mohd Salleh, via two offshore companies.

Rafizi cited LCS internal probe papers that purportedly named the companies — Alizes Marine and Alizes Marine Labuan — as well as millions in payments billed for services not rendered.

The report also claimed that Boustead Heavy Industries Corporation Berhad’s (BHIC) group internal auditor Zaily Mohamed Zaman Khan had submitted a Special Internal Audit Report in 2011, highlighting certain questionable transactions to BHIC’s group finance function involving former admiral of the Navy Tan Sri Ahmad Ramli Mohd Nor.

It said that based on the analysis of BHIC’s ledger, payments were made to three companies for technical evaluation services for the SGPV project.

They are Setaria Holdings Limited (SHL), to which a total of RM13,749,920 was paid, Sousmarin Armada Limited (SAL), to which RM8,262,285 was transferred to, and JSD Corporation Pte Limited (JSD), to which RM1,360,656 was paid.

“Payments were only supported by a single invoice without any evidence to confirm that the technical services related to PV were provided to BNS.

“It was confirmed that such significant transactions related to technical evaluation services were not approved by the procurement team and their engagement appeared arbitrary. Furthermore, the BOD had neither approved their engagement, nor had it authorised anyone to negotiate the fee quoted by such a provider of the service,” it said.

It added that based on discussions with current and former officers, the authors of the report noted that all payments were approved by Ramli and Peramjeet Singh.

“We also note that a single payment of RM1.593 million to SHL was processed on the instructions of Peramjeet and Daniel Ebinesan,” it added.

It also said that it was important to note that the three companies mentioned above were used as vehicles to siphon more than RM23 million, adding that one of them had an identical name and was registered in Malaysia as Sousmarin Armada Sdn Bhd, which was dissolved in 2012.

“One of the directors was Zainab binti Mohd Salleh, the same person involved with Alizes Marine, Alizes Marine Malta and Alizes Marine Labuan.

“As per company search, Zainab is also the shareholder and director of Sousmarin Armada Sdn Bhd,” it said.

The report also noted that Zainab is the spouse of Abdul Latiff, who just hours before denied allegations that Zainab was his wife.

“Thierry (Barrier) was holding one share, which he transferred to Abdul Latiff Ahmad. It is noted that Abdul Latiff is the spouse of Zainab,” read the report.

Following Rafizi’s revelations, Abdul Latiff denied that he is married to Zainab and said that he was ready to give his full cooperation with the authorities on the matter.

Abdul Latiff was previously a deputy defence minister with Umno but has since switched his allegiance to Bersatu.

To this, Rafizi said that he would be revealing more documents tomorrow, and would detail the alleged links between a former deputy minister and a woman said to own offshore firm Alizes Marine.

The forensic audit was ordered by Boustead Heavy Industries Corporation Bhd (BHIC) and undertaken by Alliance IFA (M) Sdn Bhd. It is the second of two audit reports that the Cabinet ordered to be declassified on August 10.