Syarikat Scomi Precision Engineering Sdn Bhd (SCOPE) was established under the

Scomi The Michigan Supreme Court is the highest court in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is Michigan's court of last resort and consists of seven justices. The Court is located in the Michigan Hall of Justice at 925 Ottawa Street in Lansing, the state ...

group of companies controlled by Kamaluddin Abdullah, a businessman who is the son of former Malaysian Prime Minister

Abdullah Ahmad Badawi Tun Abdullah bin Ahmad Badawi ( Jawi: عبد الله بن احمد بدوي; born 26 November 1939) is a Malaysian politician who served as the 5th Prime Minister of Malaysia from October 2003 to April 2009. He was also the sixth president of ...

. On 4 February 2004, the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' carried a story claiming that SCOPE supplied nuclear components to Libya as part of a rogue network masterminded by Pakistani atomic weapons supremo Dr A. Q. Khan. Scomi denied any wrongdoings. However, in 2009, the US Department of State announced that sanctions would be imposed on Scomi Chief Executive Officer,

Shah Hakim Zain The Michigan Supreme Court is the highest court in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is Michigan's court of last resort and consists of seven justices. The Court is located in the Michigan Hall of Justice at 925 Ottawa Street in Lansing, the state ...

for his involvement in Dr Khan's nuclear-proliferation network. Subsequently, following US Govt sanctions on Shah Hakim, he has fought to clear his name in that country and succeeded in 2011. The sanctions were lifted by the US State department on Monday, 18 July, and the news was covered in Malaysian papers. Shah issued a statement as well, saying: "In reference to the lifting of the sanctions imposed, I am grateful to all who have helped, guided and supported Scomi Group and I for the past few years, in particular to the Government of Malaysia and all the agencies. I would like to express my gratitude to the State of Department, United States of America for their assistance and for the lifting of the sanctions."

Company profile

SCOPE was set up as a subsidiary to Scomi Group on 4 Dec 2001. Before SCOPE was set up as a subsidiary of Scomi, it was known as Prisma Wibawa Sdn. Bhd. (PWSB). At first, PWSB had no production facility but after SCOPE was set up, a production facility was set up in 2001 in

Shah Alam Shah Alam () is a city and the state capital of Selangor, Malaysia and situated within the Petaling District and a small portion of the neighbouring Klang District. Shah Alam replaced Kuala Lumpur as the capital city of the state of Selangor in ...

. The General Manager of SCOPE was Shamsul Bahrin Rukiban. In 2001, SCOPE was reported to have secured a contract to supply components to a Dubai-based customer. In 2002,

CEO,

, was appointed director of SCOPE along with Mansor Tahir and Hilmy Zaini Zainal. In that year, the company had MYR250,000 in paid up capital. Assets of MYR1.5 million, turnover of MYR12 million and profits of MYR1 million. On 7 January 2005, Scomi Group Bhd proposed to acquire from SCOPE 250,000 ordinary shares of RM1.00 each, representing the entire issued and paid-up share capital of SCOPE for RM250,000 from its wholly owned subsidiary company, Scomi Sdn. Bhd. The control of the net assets and operations of SCOPE was effectively transferred to Scomi Group Bhd and the Group’s effective interest in SCOPE remained unchanged at 100%.

BSA Tahir

Soon after the ''NY Times'' article, the Malaysian police announced that one of Scomi's main backers, B.S.A. Tahir, had confessed to helping Dr Khan sell nuclear secrets and supplies to Iran and Libya. He was detained without trial from 2006 to 2008 for allegedly being a national security risk, having been accused of fraudulently convincing SCOPE to produce components for centrifuges to be used in Libya's secret

uranium enrichment Enriched uranium is a type of uranium in which the percent composition of uranium-235 (written 235U) has been increased through the process of isotope separation. Naturally occurring uranium is composed of three major isotopes: uranium-238 (238U ...

program. Scomi officials insisted that B.S.A. Tahir had misled them to believe that the parts were intended for the oil and gas industry. However, Tahir is reported to have said that

and Kamaluddin both knew the final destination of the products. He has accused Scomi of making fraudulent declarations and in 2009 he sued Shah Hakim and Kamaluddin for MYR75 million.

Japanese involvement

On 26 August 2006, the CEO and four executives of the Mitutoyo Corporation were arrested by Tokyo Police in connection with the sale of equipment to

, for the production of the centrifuge.

Mitutoyo is a Japanese multinational corporation specializing in measuring instruments and metrological technology, headquartered at Takatsu-ku, Kawasaki, Kanagawa.centrifuge manufacturing project.

U.S. sanctions

On January 12, 2009, the US Department of State announced that sanctions would be imposed on Dr Khan and a number of his alleged associates including BSA Tahir,

CEO,

and SCOPE GM, Shamsul Bahrin, for their involvement in Dr Khan's nuclear proliferation network. These sanctions have the effect of prohibiting Shah Hakim or Shamsul Bahrin from doing business with the US government. However, Scomi itself was not among the companies listed in the sanctions.

Malaysian government response

Given the role of the Prime Minister's son as a major shareholder of Scomi, there were calls for an independent inquiry to be carried out into the allegation of Malaysia's role in Dr Khan's network. However, no independent inquiry was carried out. Following the 2009 decision to impose sanctions on Shah Hakim, the Malaysian Government announced that it would carry out further investigations into the matter. However, no further announcement has been made. Malaysia has ratified the

Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, commonly known as the Non-Proliferation Treaty or NPT, is an international treaty whose objective is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology, to promote cooperation ...

. Following the breaking of the SCOPE scandal, the Malaysian government promised to tighten controls on exports of weapons-related equipment. However, in 2007 there were further reports that a Malaysian company was involved in the illegal arms trade, this time involving another Pakistani arms dealer, Jilani Humayun. There are no reports of the Malaysian government having taken action against the Malaysian company in either the case of

Abdul Qadeer Khan Abdul Qadeer Khan, (; ur, ; 1 April 1936 – 10 October 2021), known as A. Q. Khan, was a Pakistani nuclear physicist and metallurgical engineer. He was a key figure in Pakistan’s nuclear weapons program and is colloquially known as the ...

or in the case of Jilani Humayun.

References