Company owned by Farhash gets mineral exploration licence in Sabah for area three times larger than KL

A company owned by controversial former PKR politician turned multi-millionnaire businessman Farhash Wafa Salvador has been granted mining exploration licence in Sabah, MalaysiaNow can reveal.

Bumi Suria Sdn Bhd was awarded the exploration licence for coal mining by Sabah Mineral Management Sdn Bhd (SMM), the state mineral licensing agency chaired by Chief Minister Hajiji Noor, which is now at the centre of an explosive corruption scandal involving senior government politicians.

Official documents and letters exchanged between SMM and Bumi Suria show that the latter has been granted exclusive right to explore and search for minerals on 70,000 hectares in the Kalabakan and Gunung Rara forest reserves near the Kalimantan border - an area almost three times the size of Kuala Lumpur.

Bumi Suria is owned by Farhash together with Aminuddin Mustapha, who is popularly known in business and political circles as "Amin Botak". 

Checks revealed that Bumi Suria's application for a mining licence was confirmed in black and white on May 21 last year, just two weeks after Farhash and Amin took control of the company.

Company Commission (SSM) records show that both individuals were registered as directors and shareholders on May 7,2024.

Prior to their entry, Bumi Suria was told that an approval for a mining licence application in the same area had been revoked.

In March 2023, the company's application for coal mining received the support of Hajiji, who indicated his agreement in a handwritten note to SMM's CEO at that time, Jontih Enggihon.

In June 2023, the licence was granted and Bumi Suria entered into a joint venture with PT Bayan Resources TBK, a mining giant owned by Indonesia's "coal king" and billionaire tycoon Low Tuck Kwong.

Low's Bayan Resources is Indonesia's largest coal mining company, which has seen a surge in profits following the Ukraine conflict, which prompted countries around the world to look for new sources of coal and other minerals.

Revoked and restored

Things took an abrupt turn in early 2024 when Bumi Suria learned that Hajiji had abruptly revoked its licence without giving a reason.

The licence was reinstated five months later, on May 21,2024, just two weeks after Farhash and Amin joined Bumi Suria.

In restoring the licence, SMM informed Bumi Suria that the areas it had applied for may overlap with an application from another mining company, Pro Raptor Sdn Bhd.

In June, Farhash wrote to SMM's Jontih, insisting there was no question of overlap with Pro Raptor's application and that the matter had already been briefed to Hajiji and discussed at SMM's board meeting.

Subsequently, a board meeting by SMM in September decided to reject Pro Raptor's application while approving Bumi Suria's application.

The same board meeting also resolved to approve several other prospective licence applications, while rejecting many others. Among those approved is Bayan Assets, a company wholly owned by Bayan Resources and led by Indonesia-based Malaysian billionaire tycoon Lim Chai Hock.

Meanwhile, among the applications rejected was one from Zoop Technology to carry out mining activities on an area of 10,000 hectares.

Zoop Technology is believed to be a company owned by Albert Tei, the businessman who later rose to prominence when he released audio and video recordings pointing to high-level corruption in the granting of mining licences.

Since late last year, news portal Malaysiakini has published a series of video recordings it had obtained from Tei, showing Sabah state assemblymen discussing bribes ranging from hundreds of thousands to millions of ringgit.

Fearing for his safety, Tei had then sought protection so that he could lodge a formal complaint with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).

Tei's personal plea to Anwar to be granted whistleblower protection was turned down by the prime minister, prompting criticism from anti-graft activists.

This was followed by MACC chief Azam Baki declared that the videos were not credible enough to be admitted as evidence. His predecessor Latheefa Koya then presented the MACC with the complete and unedited version of the clips recorded by Tei.

In late June, after months of pressure on Azam, MACC charged two Sabah assemblymen - Yusof Yacob and Andi Muhammad Suryady Bandy, alongside Tei himself- a move slammed by critics as selective prosecution for not going after the real "sharks" identified in the videos.