Court rejects Bestinet's bid to silence Bloomberg, Rafizi, Latheefa and three local media outlets

The Kuala Lumpur High Court has dismissed an application by a controversial businessman at the centre of allegations of human trafficking to silence Bloomberg and eight others, including former minister Rafizi Ramli, former Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission chief Latheefa Koya, and three local news outlets.

Judge Roslan Mat Nor rejected the ex-parte application for an interim injunction filed by former Bangladeshi national turned Malaysian citizen Aminul Islam and his company Bestinet Sdn Bhd, over a Bloomberg report last month documenting shocking details of how migrant workers in Malaysia are exploited by human traffickers who profit from poor families, many of whom lost their entire life savings to pay "syndicate fees" for jobs that never existed.

"This is because if an interim injunction is granted by setting aside the right to speak, it will indirectly cause any wrongdoing or breaches of governance to be removed from public discussion due to the interim injunction order. This should be avoided," judge Roslan said in a judgment dated Feb 20.

None of the 10 defendants named were represented due to the nature of the ex-parte application, in which the plaintiff claimed there was urgency to file the request without notifying them.

Besides Rafizi, Latheefa, Bloomberg and its Malaysian branch, Amin also named three local media outlets: The Edge, Malaysiakini and MalaysiaNow.

Three other individuals were also named, including PKR member and political commentator Iswardy Morni.

The application centres on Bloomberg's report published on Jan 22 titled "Everyone gets a cut, and migrant workers pay the price", which was either republished, rewritten or commented on by the defendants.

Read: Damning Bloomberg report implicates Putrajaya in giving second life to Bangladeshi-owned firm accused of human trafficking

In its decision, the court noted that the defendants had merely reported or commented on the allegations raised by the Bloomberg article.

"Therefore, it is difficult to state that the defendants do not have a defence that can be considered with regard to justification.

Oleh itu, sukar untuk menyatakan bahawa defendan-defendan tersebut tidak mempunyai pembelaan yang boleh dipertimbangkan berkenaan justifikasi.

Lives destroyed

The report followed the financial daily's 10-month investigation into allegations of high-level corruption in the recruitment process of migrant workers involving Bestinet.

It cited documents stating that companies founded by Amin pocketed more than US$100 million (RM400 million) in the past 10 years, roughly the period since Bestinet was first awarded a multi-billion ringgit government contract to manage Malaysia's foreign worker visas.

It named Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi as having played a "key role" alongside Bestinet, and quoted people who knew Amin as saying that he forged an alliance with the Umno president, in addition to appointing former senior government officials to his companies’ boards.

The report revealed how huge profits were made by recruitment agents who "over-recruit or promise fake jobs".

"The recruitment fees sustain the system. Everyone gets a cut, and the workers pay."

The result is that lives are destroyed for migrant workers who took on debts and spent their life savings to pay agents for promised jobs.

Bloomberg also told the harrowing story of Shofiqul Islam, a Bangladeshi farmer, who borrowed US$4,400 to secure a construction job, only to find his employer had disappeared, leaving him jobless, indebted and forced to hide from authorities. Unable to find any new job due to visa rules, he fell ill and died in 2024, leaving his family burdened with debt.

'Second life' for Bestinet

Bestinet came under the spotlight in 2015, when the home ministry led by Zahid hired it to run the Foreign Workers Centralised Management System (FWCMS), only for it to later become mired in controversy over a drastic hike in fees exceeding 1,500%.

The decision to award the job to Bestinet was made despite the International Labour Organization's finding two years earlier that Amin’s paperless recruitment system was not foolproof in protecting migrants from excessive fees, according to Bloomberg.

At the heart of the outrage was the fact that all recruitment orders would involve only 10 of Bangladesh’s more than 1,000 agencies, a condition the Bangladeshi government was pressured to accept.

Zahid had then announced that Malaysia would bring in 1.5 million Bangladeshi workers, but critics say many arrived only to find they had been duped by promises of jobs, and were soon forced to hide or disappear for fear of their illegal status.

Following the change of government in 2018, Bestinet was suspended due to allegations of exploitation of Nepali migrant workers. In 2019, however, then human resources minister M Kulasegaran announced the return of Bestinet after dismissing the allegations against it.

In July 2022, MACC launched an investigation into Bestinet, but dropped it in September 2024, shortly after the company was granted a lucrative six-year extension by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim's government.

Citing two sources, Bloomberg said the decision was the result of Amin "tapping into his network".

"He visited the MACC to speak with its chief, Azam Baki," they were quoted as saying in the report, which also carried Amin's denial that the meeting had taken place.

The report also quoted sources as saying that Amin "asked top officials to lobby Anwar to extend Bestinet’s term".

"Zahid... privately pushed the prime minister... At the end of a Cabinet meeting in early 2024, Anwar made a surprise announcement: Bestinet would get an extension," it added.

...