☕️ MACC seized RM5 mil cash worth of SGD from alleged 'safe house' of prominent politician

1. MARKET SUMMARY 📈

2. NUMBERS AT A GLANCE 🔢

Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest person, has an estimated net worth of USD11.7 bil and ranks 191st on Forbes’ billionaires list. Dangote, 67, first appeared on the list in 2008 and has held his position as Africa’s wealthiest every year since. As the founder of the Dangote Group, Africa’s largest cement producer, his company produces 51.6 mil metric tons of cement annually and employs 24,000 people across 10 African countries. Despite his immense wealth, Dangote revealed that he does not own any homes outside Nigeria, focusing his real estate investments within his home country. Low key billionaire.

Malaysia has become Indonesia’s top source of international visitors, with 1.9 mil Malaysians travelling to Indonesia last year, boosting the nation’s economy. In return, 3.1 mil Indonesians visited Malaysia, highlighting the strong tourism exchange between the two countries. Tourism and Creative Economy Minister Sandiaga Salahuddin Uno credited this success to the collaboration between both nations in enhancing cooperation in the tourism and creative economy sectors.

More than half of Malaysians (55%) believe it is acceptable or normal to exaggerate their income on loan applications, according to FICO’s latest global consumer fraud research, surpassing the global average of 39%. The study also highlights that three in five Malaysians find it acceptable to misrepresent their income on applications for various financial products, including bank accounts (66%), automotive financing (64%), and mortgages (59%). 37% find it acceptable to overstate their income for personal loans, but only under certain conditions (not disclosed).

3. IN MALAYSIA 🇲🇾

Mufti Bill explained
Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil said that the Mufti Bill (Federal Territories) 2024 will not expand the powers of the mufti but instead ensure the jurisdiction of the mufti is more orderly and clear. Fahmi also added that the Bill almost mirrors the articles and clauses contained in the Sabah Fatwa Enactment that was passed 20 years ago concerning the Sabah Mufti.

But, should we trust Putrajaya with its words? According to the co-founder of Lawyers for Liberty, Latheefa Koya, she stated that under clause 11 of the Bill, a fatwa issued by the mufti as chairman of the national fatwa committee shall be binding on every Muslim. This is a huge departure from the current legal position of fatwas which are merely matters of personal observance, belief or opinion. According to activist Mariam Mokhtar, the president of the Perak Liberation Organisation (PLO), the Bill will provide unprecedented sweeping powers to unelected officials, which are the muftis, to dictate what we can, or cannot do. Btw who is a mufti anyway? Mufti is the title given to the advisor of Islam. In Malaysia, as the power in regard to religion is under the state domain and not at the federal level, each state including the federal territories, has their own muftis.

Inheritance tax is a taboo for now
During the Association of Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry Malaysia (ACCCIM) 78th annual general meeting, PM Anwar hinted that the inheritance tax may not be reintroduced in Budget 2025 as taxing the rich would discourage domestic investment. Previously, the ACCCIM outgoing president Low Kian Chuan stated that inheritance tax could lead to an outflow of assets belonging to the wealthy.

In the same event, PM Anwar also dropped the news that the goods and services tax (GST) may stay in the history books until the minimum income threshold is at the  RM3,000-RM4,000 level. At the moment, the minimum monthly wage in Malaysia is RM1,500. PM Anwar agreed that the GST tax regime is more efficient and would expand Putrajaya’s coffers, but he added that the poor should not be burdened with such a tax system. Currently, 175 countries have adopted the GST tax system and Malaysia is among the few that still haven’t embraced it. We have a familiar friend at the bench of GST non-believers — the United States, Myanmar and North Korea.

Malaysia’s racquet sports heroes

1. Goh Sze Fei and Nur Izzuddin Rumsani are on a roll as they captured the 2024 Arctic Open men’s doubles title in a three-game thriller this evening. The pair ranked world No. 8, beat world No. 2 Kim Astrup-Anders Skaarup Rasmussen of Denmark 15-21, 21-15, 21-19 in Vantaa, Finland, for their third title since September after winning the Japan and China Opens. The win should boost their confidence as they finish the season, leading up to the World Badminton Federation tour finals in December.

2. Pearly Tan and M. Thinaah, in the final of the 2024 Arctic Open, took second place in the finals as the World No. 2 Liu Sheng Shu-Tan Ning proved too strong. The game ended in two sets, 21-12 and 21-17 in 58 minutes. It was their fifth defeat in eight encounters against the Chinese pair.

3. In a huge paddle in the face to China, the Malaysian table tennis pair, Javen Choong and Wong Qi Shen defeated China’s top-ranked pair Lin Shidong and Lin Gaoyuan 3-2 in a stunning upset victory to win bronze at the Asian Table Tennis Championships in Kazakhstan. The victory ended Malaysia’s 54-year ‘dry season’ of winning a medal in the tournament. Just as a reminder, Malaysia just celebrated its 67th Independence Day and 61st Malaysia Day.

Pickleball championships soon?

Shorts

1. YDPA visits Brunei
   In a three-day official visit to the Bornean state, the Malaysian King, Sultan Ibrahim and Raja Zarith Sofiah Queen of Malaysia, just landed at Bandar Seri Begawan on Sunday. The visit is organised at the invitation of Brunei King, Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah and coincides with the 40th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Malaysia and Brunei Darussalam. Brunei imported the most from Malaysia in December 2023, accounting for 47.3% of the country’s imports. Apart from relying on almost half of its imported goods from Malaysia, Brunei also depends on Malaysia for its national security.

2. Politician safe house raided, stash of cash found
   The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) has just raided an apartment unit during the weekends, believed to be a ‘safe house’ that a prominent politician used to stash illegally gained cash. In this spy-ish level safe house, about RM5 mil worth of Singaporean dollar notes were found. Perhaps the politician is also an active follower of the SGD-MYR exchange rate movement and it was quite wise to hold SGD as the currency appreciated against the MYR in the last few years until the trend reversal recently.

3. Four missing Tahfiz students found, with signs of abuse
   Kuala Lumpur police chief Comm Rusdi Mohd Isa told the media that three brothers, aged between 13 and 20 years old, were arrested for the alleged abuse of four Tahfiz students. The four Tahfiz students were found in Bangi with signs of swelling and other wounds, believed to be abused and sexually assaulted.
   

4. AROUND THE WORLD 🌎

Nihon Hidankyo wins Nobel Peace Prize, warns about nuclear war
The latest Nobel Peace Prize was announced, and this time it was aptly awarded to the Japanese organisation Nihon Hidankyo, a grassroots movement of atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Norwegian Nobel Committee said that the group was receiving the Peace Prize for "its efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons and for demonstrating through witness testimony that nuclear weapons must never be used again".

Indeed, the organisation has been working hard to advocate for a nuclear-free world, attributing their work to the survivors of the two nuclear bombs ever to be used in conflict, known in Japanese as "hibakusha". There were 106,825 atomic bomb survivors registered in Japan as of March, with an average age of 85.6 years. Co-chair Toshiyuki Mimaki, who is a survivor himself, said that the award is a boost to its efforts to demonstrate that the abolition of nuclear weapons was necessary and possible. He faulted governments for waging wars even as their citizens yearned for peace, adding that he fears that humankind is on the path to self-destruction as long as nuclear power is in place.

Speaking in tears over the award, Mimaki also expressed his disbelief that they have won and earnestly thought that those fighting hard for peace in Gaza would deserve it. Nevertheless, he warned that with the conflicts raging around the world, including in Gaza, the possibility of a nuclear war is indeed heightening.

Tesla’s ‘We, Robot’ event
Tesla unveiled its future of driverless taxis and Will Smith’s “I, Robot”. As usual, great performance by Elon Musk and co. but always scant in details.

• Robotaxi fails to impress Wall Street
  Elon Musk has recently revealed a fleet of Tesla's driverless vehicle Robotaxi, officially called the Cybercab, to a crowd at Warner Bros. Discovery's film studio (i.e. a well-controlled environment) in Burbank, California. He dramatically rode in one of the prototypes and announced that it would be in production before 2027. However, it turned out that it was not that impressive to investors, judging from Tesla shares going down as much as 10% in early trading the next day. The stock became 15% lower than it was this time last year, with the company valued at just under USD700 bil. Wall Street investors were particularly disappointed by the lack of details, while ex-Waymo CEO cited that Tesla is not "serious about building a safe and accessible Robotaxi business." Waymo, owned by Google is far ahead in this space — completing more than 100,000 self-driving cab rides a week.

• Beer-serving Optimus was controlled by human the whole time
  Also demo-ed at the event were Tesla’s robots. Attendees were seen interacting with a robot bartender who appeared to be able to have human-like conversations and dance to the music. However it turned out that it was not doing anything itself — it was actually controlled by humans in a remote setting, and probably not using AI at all. That said, as much as we are laughing off at this. the US government must be liking such progress and fantasising about combining them robots with weapons.

Moving up to the stratosphere, Musk scored a more noteworthy achievement. SpaceX launched an enormous rocket on its boldest test flight yet, and its rocket’s towering first-stage booster came back to land for the first time via a novel recovery method involving large metal arms. The Super Heavy booster, after separating from the Starship booster some 74 km in altitude, returned to the same area from which it was launched to make its landing attempt, aided by two robotic arms attached to the launch tower and literally caught the booster safely. Quite an impressive engineering feat there - watch here.

Digital arrests - Macau Scam on steroids
A more sophisticated form of scam is now on the rise, particularly in recent years in India where Macau scam meets phishing. The latest one was an Indian textile baron who fell prey to the scam, where he was duped out of INR70 mil (USD833,000) by scammers who were impersonating federal investigators and even the Supreme Court chief justice.

This particular scam is called digital arrest, a type of cyber-attack that involves tricking individuals into revealing sensitive information that may involve identity theft, financial loss, or stealing data for malicious purposes by “arresting” victims in a virtual environment. The victims are coerced into staying connected with the scammer through video-conferencing software. The video-conferencing software uses a sophisticated deepfake video technology that can make them appear completely different from the real person (in this case the investigators and the chief justice). It even uses an AI engine to replicate the real voice.

However, as the deepfake technology evolves, so do the detection systems. There are systems in place that can detect them, but experts are suggesting the need to build awareness and make global initiatives to monitor and regulate AI technology. Organisations responsible for enforcing international laws and cooperation agreements also need improved training and more effective tools to combat crime.

Shots

1. Indonesia might ban Apple’s iPhone 16 sale over investment shortfall
   The marketing of the new iPhone 16 has been delayed in Indonesia, due to pending permits from the country’s Ministry of Industry. Seems like the delay is linked to the expiration of Apple's Domestic Component Level (TKDN) certification, which needs to be renewed, as well as a shortfall in their promise to invest IDR1.71 tril  (around USD109.5 mil) in the country. To date, only IDR1.48 tril has been realised, leaving a shortfall of approximately IDR240 bil. Indonesia is eagerly waiting for the tech giant to fulfill its promise.

2. TD Bank pleads guilty to money laundering, agrees to pay over USD3 billion fines

   US officials have officially announced that TD Bank, Canada’s second-largest bank after the Royal Bank of Canada (10th largest in the US), is guilty of money laundering. As a consequence, the bank has agreed to pay more than USD3 bil in penalties for failing to adequately monitor money laundering by drug cartels. TD Bank has pleaded guilty to multiple felonies including violating the Bank Secrecy Act and conspiracy to commit money laundering. It is the first bank in US history to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit such crime. Between January 2014 and October 2023, TD Bank has failed to monitor USD18.3 tril (trillion!)in customer activity, allowing 3 money laundering networks to transfer over USD670 mil through its bank account.

5. FOR YOUR EYES 📺

Today will be dedicated towards building$ in $ingapore

1. Singapore’s Pan Pacific Orchard Hotel, described as a “hotel in nature”, was just crowned the world’s “best tall building” in 2024 by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH). A quick tour inside the hotel here.

cnn

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2. A Good Class Bungalow (Singapore’s version of a super atas bungalow) in Singapore’s most exclusive neighbourhood, Nassim Road, has been listed on the market for SGD308 mil (RM1.01 bil). The property is relisted for sale after at least 2 failed attempts and is priced considerably higher than its price tag of SGD175 mil in 2019.

3. A stroll along popular billionaire neighbourhoods in Singapore

astateofhouse

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