Minister brother denies Liberal Technology shares

Minister brother denies Liberal Technology shares. Businessman Haris Onn Hussein, brother of Malaysia's Home Affairs Minister yesterday said he was not a shareholder of Kuala Lumpur company when it was hired two years ago by Securency. He said he already sold his shares in Liberal Technology in September 2006 and had no dealings with Securency, which engaged the Malaysian firm as its agent in 2009. However, Liberal Technology's official records with Companies Commission of Malaysia had, until yesterday, listed Haris Onn Hussein as owning 180,000 shares.

"I had never dealt with and/or been engaged by Securency, at any time whatsoever, to influence... 'Malaysia's top politicians'," Haris Onn Hussein wrote in a statement to The Age.

Haris Onn Hussein is the brother of Malaysia’s Home Affairs Minister Hishammuddin Hussein and the cousin of Malaysia’s Prime Minister Najib Razak. Liberal Technology sent a document to The Age which it said showed Haris Onn Hussein divesting his shares on 4 September 2006. Liberal Technology directors, Hafizuddin Bin Che Din and Mohamed Hanif Bin Che Din, told The Age that they had just discovered that their company secretary had forgotten for nearly five years to update shareholding records with the Companies Commission of Malaysia. The Age asked Liberal Technology’s directors to explain their firm's apparent close connection to another Malaysian company, Lembah Sari, which is largely owned and directed by Haris Onn Hussein.

The close link between Liberal Technology and Lembah Sari was referred to in the annual reports of another major Malaysian company associated with Haris Onn Hussein. The 2006 and 2007 annual reports of Malaysian company SCOMI Marine, which Haris Onn Hussein was a director of until 2010, included a biography of the businessman.

It stated: "Haris Onn Hussein...(is) the chairman of Lembah Sari Sdn Bhd (formerly known as Liberal Technology Sdn Bhd)."

Companies Commission of Malaysia records show Haris Onn Hussein to be a major individual shareholder in Lembah Sari. Another of Lembah Sari’s shareholders is a company called Mellow Melody. Haris Onn Hussein owns 49,999 of Mellow Melody’s 50,000 shares, records show.

Asked about the links between Liberal Technology and Lembah Sari, Liberal Tecnology directors Hafizuddin Bin Che Din and Mohamed Bin Che Din said their company was a ‘‘different legal entity’’. They were "not able to give any clarification" regarding the statement in the Scomi Marine annual reports that suggested Liberal Technology had become Lembah Sari.

Liberal Technology cut ties with Securency on December 31 2009.

Source: The Age.