BMF Urges Asset Seizure: How Rich Is Taib Mahmud? Is He Wealthier Than Robert Kuok?

BMF Urges Asset Seizure: How Rich Is Taib Mahmud? Is He Wealthier Than Robert Kuok?


Following the passing of the former Head of State of Sarawak, Tun Abdul Taib Mahmud, the current focus shifts to how the family members of Tun Abdul Taib Mahmud will distribute the wealth.



Furthermore, the Bruno Manser Fonds, a Swiss environmental and human rights group, urges Malaysia's political leadership and judiciary to freeze Taib's assets and reopen investigations into the source of Taib's substantial wealth, along with that of his immediate family members.

So, one question remains in most of our minds: How much wealth did Tun Taib Mahmud actually possess?




Tun Taib had previously sparked controversy over inheritance, with his wife, Raghad Kurdi, and his second son, Sulaiman, at the center of the dispute.

Sulaiman had previously filed a court injunction preventing Tun Taib Mahmud from transferring shares of a publicly-listed company to Raghad Kurdi. However, the publicly-listed company's shares represent only a fraction of Tun Taib Mahmud's overall wealth.

As the Tun Taib Mahmud family has never declared their assets, authoritative financial magazines such as Forbes and Fortune have not been able to estimate Tun Taib Mahmud's wealth.



Nevertheless, the Bruno Manser Foundation (BMF) released a report in 2012, stating that Tun Taib Mahmud's net worth was $15 billion (approximately MYR 71.4 billion).

Even by today's standards, this wealth surpasses that of Malaysia's richest person, Robert Kuok.

According to Forbes' real-time billionaire list as of February 7, 2024, Robert Kuok's net worth is $10.2 billion (approximately MYR 48.5724 billion).



However, the accuracy of the Bruno Manser Foundation's estimation of Tun Taib Mahmud's wealth remains unconfirmed, leaving the actual wealth of Tun Taib Mahmud shrouded in mystery.