| Submit your comments on this article |
| Afghanistan/South Asia |
| B.S.A. Tahir, This Is Your Life! |
| 2004-02-18 |
| NYT digs deep, really. EFL: It has lately begun to seem as if B. S. A. Tahir, a prominent businessman here, had two faces. Acquaintances describe Mr. Tahir, who is in his middle 40’s, as a soft-spoken husband and father who lives in an upper-middle-class suburb of Kuala Lumpur and has a passion for fast cars and flashy clothes. He has a financial interest in a fine-chocolates franchise in a shopping mall in fashionable Bangsur that was opened a couple of years ago by the wife of a top politician. Nearby is a gourmet date shop that he also partly owns. In addition, Mr. Tahir has been director of an investment holding company called Kaspadu, until recently owned by his wife in partnership with the son of the country’s current prime minister and another prominent businessman. But investigators are trying to determine whether Mr. Tahir’s legitimate businesses here have been a cover for nuclear black-market activities, a senior Malaysian official said. I thought you had cleared him? Investigators say Mr. Tahir put together a deal two years ago for a Malaysian company, Scomi Precision Engineering, to make nuclear-centrifuge parts for Libya, apparently without telling the company where the parts were going, according to company officials and corporate documents. The deal was exposed last October when a ship destined for Libya, the BBC China, was seized in the Mediterranean. Exposed in public, in private the intel community seems to have been watching for a long time. Scomi Precision’s parent, the Scomi Group, is principally owned by Kaspadu, the holding company linked to Mr. Tahir, according to corporate documents on file with a government regulatory agency here. Investigators say Mr. Tahir, a Sri Lankan who came to Malaysia in the mid-90’s by way of Dubai, may have been sent by Mr. Khan to secretly procure nuclear parts. He seems to be much more than a middle man. They also suspect this was not the first time or country in which Mr. Tahir carried out an operation to acquire nuclear matériel, one senior investigator said, adding that in Malaysia, Mr. Tahir had "replicated" earlier operations — though the details of those are still unknown. Hummmm Investigators have discovered that Mr. Tahir apparently traveled widely to carry out his nuclear-technology business. On one occasion, they say, he went to Casablanca, Morocco, to negotiate with Libyans for the purchase of the centrifuge parts, which are important in making fuel for bombs. On a trip to Switzerland, they say, he met with an engineer who came to Kuala Lumpur to supervise production of the parts. Mr. Tahir also made trips to Germany and Turkey to meet with suppliers, the investigators said. A Malaysian official said Mr. Tahir’s network included two father-and-son teams, one British and one Swiss. Sounds like we let Malaysia look at his file. In recent weeks, it appears Mr. Tahir has taken steps to cover up his past. His wife sold her shares in Kaspadu, some of them to the Malaysian prime minister’s son, Kamaluddin Abdullah. In addition, a Dubai computer company that Western investigators say Mr. Tahir was using as a front has removed evidence of his involvement from its Web site. Bet he generated a whole lot of page hits, one of them me. He has not been arrested, but is under constant and close surveillance by Malaysian authorities, who say he declines to comment publicly. Nor did Mr. Kamaluddin respond to requests for interviews made at his home and his business. The previous story made it sound like he moved out of his house, wonder if it was voluntary? Bukhary Seyed Abu Tahir was born in Tamil Nadu, India, on April 17, 1959, according to the Sri Lankan Embassy and corporate papers. When he was about 5, his family moved to Sri Lanka. He later returned to New Delhi to study, and it was during this time that an uncle met Dr. Khan, according to investigators. The uncle had a business that supplied parts to Dr. Khan’s operation. Cue "Family Affair" theme song. In his early 20’s, Mr. Tahir moved to Dubai and opened a shop, SMB Computers, using his father’s initials. He was successful, and together with his brother, Seyed Ibrahim Bukhary, he helped the company grow into SMB Group, which has computer sales and services operations throughout the Middle East. In a brief telephone conversation last week, Mr. Bukhary refused to answer any questions, saying only that his brother had no current financial interest in SMB Group and was not involved in the management. Two weeks ago, the SMB Group’s Web site (www.smb.co.ae) implied a different story. For instance, a press release from 2002, which announced that SMB Computers had signed a "megadeal" with the United Arab Emirates Air Force, listed Mr. Tahir as the managing director. That press release no longer appears on the site. That’s what it said when I looked, guess he’s being erased. In the mid-90’s, Mr. Tahir showed up in Kuala Lumpur, according to Malaysian officials. Most notable among his new friends was Mr. Kamaluddin, son of the country’s foreign minister, Abdullah Badawi, who is now prime minister. There was also Shah Hakim Zain, who was on the verge of joining the "movers and shakers," to quote a recent article in a Malaysian business magazine. Just showed up in town and hooked up with the power elite. Mr. Kamaluddin and Mr. Hakim had an investment company named Kaspadu, according to records at the Companies Commission of Malaysia, a regulatory agency. I love records. In 1998, Mr. Tahir married Nazimah Binti Syed Majid. She was put on the Kaspadu board, but stepped down in December 2000 and was replaced by Mr. Tahir, who served until early 2003. Interesting, that. She is reported as being the daughter of a former "Malaysian diplomat", but no one breathes his name. Last month, after the Americans notified the Malaysian government about Mr. Tahir’s involvement in the sale of centrifuge parts to Libya, Ms. Nazimah sold her shares in Kaspadu to Mr. Kamaluddin and Mr. Hakim, according to documents and Malaysian officials. Dumped the stock for traveling money? Kaspadu is the principal shareholder of the Scomi Group. In 2001, Mr. Tahir negotiated a contract with Scomi for the manufacture of high-precision components, Scomi officials have said. At the time, he was on the board of Kaspadu, according to corporate documents. Conflict of interest, anyone? Mr. Tahir said the parts were being made for Gulf Technical Industries, a Dubai company owned by a British engineer, Peter Griffin, a longtime supplier to Dr. Khan during the time he was building Pakistan’s nuclear capacity. Mr. Griffin, whose son Paul is one of three owners of Gulf Technical, acknowledges meeting Scomi officials with Mr. Tahir, but denies that they discussed nuclear equipment, or that he ever bought anything from Scomi or any Malaysian company. So, Peter and Paul are the British father and son. To manufacture the parts, Scomi set up Scomi Precision Engineering. Gulf Technical brought in a Swiss engineer, Urs Tinner, to oversee production of the parts, Scomi officials said this week. Mr. Tinner, who was based in Dubai, rented a house near the plant while he was here, Scomi officials said. He kept the blueprints with him at all times, they said. Mr. Tinner’s father is also an engineer, and has a factory in Europe that makes vacuum tubes, Scomi officials said. The Swiss father and son. Investigators have not linked the elder Mr. Tinner directly to the sale to Libya. Vacuum tubes? Like in radios, or as in high speed triggers? Scomi officials declined to provide addresses of either Tinner, and efforts to find them failed. Hummm Scomi shipped the parts in four consignments to two companies in Dubai that had been designated by Mr. Tahir, Scomi officials said this week. One of them, according to Dubai corporate records, was owned by Mr. Tahir’s financial partners in SMB Computers. Corporate records are nice, the business community keeps track of everything. Desert Electrical was owned by one of Mr. Tahir’s financial partners in SMB Computers, according to Dubai corporate records. The phone number for Desert Electrical listed in the corporate records is no longer in service. Scomi officials have repeatedly insisted that they were told the parts were for an oil and gas company. They had no reason to suspect Mr. Tahir, they said, until the BBC China was seized last year. Interesting. |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #1 what ever happened to the good old days when guys like Gerald Bull got 9mm headaches? Mr. Tahir needs a car accident as a warning, something bloody |
| Posted by: Frank G 2004-2-18 8:55:57 PM |