A major real estate development in Ottawa, has been secretly funded by the family of Sarawak governor Abdul Taib Mahmud, states a new book, which lays bare alleged corrupt activities behind the rape of the Borneo rainforests.
Lukas Straumann, the author, who also heads the Swiss-based Bruno Manser Fund, claims in his 300-page book that Sarawak Governor Abdul Taib, his four children and his siblings have stakes in 333 companies in Malaysia and in another 418 spread around the globe.
Logging in Sarawak, for long the world's largest exporter of tropical timbers, has been controversial since the mid-1980s. Some of the world's largest timber conglomerates, including Rimbunan Hijau and Samling, have their origins in Sarawak and are currently active all over the globe.
At a recent event which was attended by approximately 50 people, including members of the press and a former Malaysian High Commissioner to North America, Straumann, presented documents alleging close financial ties between the Taib family and Sakto corporation, an Ottawa-based real estate group. 
Straumann presented evidence on a mortgage loan over CAN$ 20 million granted to Sakto by the Taib family in 1996 for the company’s Preston Street development in Ottawa’s Little Italy. 
Sakto, which is directed by Taib’s daughter and her Canadian husband, controls three office towers and a residential building at Preston appraised at more than CAN$ 200 million.
Other newly-released documents are showing that Taib’s late wife, Laila, purchased a private property in Ottawa’s Rockcliffe Park for CAN$ 945,000 in 1989. The mansion was later given for free to Taib daughter Jamilah and her husband Sean Murray.
The documents are additional evidence supporting Straumann’s claim that the Taib family has secretly transferred hundreds of millions of dollars in illicit assets from the Malaysian state of Sarawak to family properties in Canada, the US, Australia and the United Kingdom. The Taib family holds stakes in over 400 companies in 25 countries. Their stake in 14 Malaysian companies alone has been calculated at USD 1.2 billion.
Straumann criticized the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) for their inaction on the Taib case
“We alerted FINTRAC and the RCMP back in 2010 on the Taib family’s illicit businesses in Canada. While Malaysia’s Anti Corruption Commission MACC has opened a case against Taib, the RCMP have not committed to anything. Despite repeated letters and e-mails to the officers in charge, the RCMP were not even willing to meet us to discuss the Taib family case.“
The Bruno Manser Fund calls on the RCMP and the Canadian judiciary to live up to Canada’s international obligations under the UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) and to freeze the Taibs’ Canadian assets and to prosecute the family for money-laundering.
Under Canada’s Criminal Code, it is forbidden to conceal or convert property that has been obtained anywhere in the world in a manner that if it had occurred in Canada, would have constituted a designated offence.“
More recently, at  Vancouver University of BC, Straumann when presenting his new book Money Logging: On the Trail of the Asian Timber Mafia, Straumann told attendees how his Swiss publisher, Bergli Books, and Amazon had been urged by the Sarawak Governor's London lawyer, Mishcon de Reya, to stop the distribution of the book for alleged defamation. 
He underlined that these were empty threats which were not followed up by legal action from Taib's lawyers.
"Taib Mahmud knows that the facts as exposed in my book are true and will not dare to go to court. Suing me or my publisher would mean for him to open a can of worms as much more misdeeds would come out into the public. We do have the evidence and numerous witnesses on our side. I challenge Taib Mahmud to publicly acknowledge the allegations in my book or sue me."
Straumann, who is a historian by training, told The Malaysian Insider that attorneys acting on Taib's behalf had sent a legal letter to Amazon and his publishers to stop the book from being published.
"I have done two years of extensive research to prove that Taib does have a financial empire worth billions.
"The information I have derived is from public records, such as company registries in Malaysia, Canada, the United States of America, Australia, Hong Kong and the United Kingdom.
“But I have also conducted a large number of interviews with indigenous representatives, lawyers, NGO campaigners, politicians and business people.
“Everything in the book has been meticulously researched and is solidly sourced, so I am not worried," he said, when asked if he was afraid of any legal repercussions.
Straumann said most of the information in the book had already been provided to the relevant authorities and he hoped that Malaysian authorities would act on it.
"The book will give the layman a better understanding of what has been happening in Sarawak and is still currently ongoing," Straumann said.
"I hope that the book will raise sufficient international interest to change the way and manner in which the international community has been dealing with Sarawak."
"The root cause of Sarawak's malaise and the destruction of its rainforests was bad governance," Straumann said.
"Taib ran the state for over 20 years, his reign was unchecked and he set up various businesses using his four children and 10 siblings as proxies or nominees," Straumann said.
In 1963, 85% of Sarawak's territory was mainly primeval jungles and forests which remained untouched for decades, Straumann said.
However, the landscape in the Borneo state changed radically over the past 50 years as Sarawak accounts for 25% of the world's logging exports.
Straumann also revealed in his book how he and former BBC journalist Clare Rewcastle had met Ross Boyert in June 2010.
Boyert was the former chief operating officer of a company owned by Datuk Seri Sulaiman Abdul Rahman Abdul Taib, Taib's son, in the United States.
Straumann said Boyert had revealed that Taib owned properties worth about US$80 million in San Francisco and Seattle, which he helped administer on Sulaiman's behalf.
Companies in the United States owned by Taib included Sakti International Corporation, Wallysons Inc and W.A. Boylston.
The companies are registered in the names of Taib's children and siblings, but in reality they belong to him, Straumann said Boyert had told him.
Meanwhile, a report from Malaysia last week said, that for the first time in the history of Sarawak, which has been part of Malaysia since 1963, a Chief Minister has taken on the timber industry. T
he timber industry has for long been the state's economic backbone but is currently facing decreasing yields due to non-sustainable harvesting practices in past years.
According to Malaysian media reports, Chief Minister Adenan Satem gathered the tycoons of the state's big six logging firms, KTS, Rimbunan Hijau, Samling, Shin Yang, Ta Ann and WTK for a meeting in which he publicly accused them of using "corrupt" practices and warned them not to "mess with me."
Adenan also said that he will "put the fear of God into people who are dishonest" and described the state of corruption in Sarawak as "very bad, a reflection of what enforcement officers have not been doing."
Adenan carefully avoided mentioning his predecessor and current governor, Taib Mahmud, under whose 33-year tenure as Chief Minister corruption has become endemic in Sarawak. Taib had abused his public office to enrich his family members who became billionaires during his time in office, said the report.