CONFIDENTIAL
ATTORNEY GENERAL'S CHAMBERS
Queensway Government Offices 66 Queensway
Hong Kong
21 October 1992
Mr Frank Berman, CMG QC
Legal Adviser
Foreign and Commonwealth office King Charles Street
SW1
United Kingdom
Dear Frank,
Dr Rais bin Saniman
You may already know something of the difficulties which we are experiencing in a request for the extradition from France to Hong Kong of a Malaysian national, Dr Rais bin Saniman.
I am quite sure that you will have some knowledge of Lorrain Osman whose efforts to fight extradition from the United Kingdom to Hong Kong now enjoy some notoriety. Essentially the two requests for extradition arise out of the same case and the allegations against the fugitives are similar in that they concern alleged offences of conspiracy to defraud and accepting corrupt advantages. Briefly, the particulars of these allegations concern fraudulent advances by a deposit taking company of which both Saniman and Osman were directors ("BMFL") of sums of the order of US$800 million to companies controlled by a man called George TAN (of Carrian fame). During the same period corrupt payments exceeding HK$260 million were made by TAN to the directors and staff of BMFL. As the amounts of the fraudulent advances and corrupt payments are on an unprecedented scale, you will readily understand that I take a particularly serious view of this case.
Saniman's extradition from France was first sought by a Request of the Governor of Hong Kong of 7 November 1986. In the event, Saniman was not arrested until 27 April 1987. On 4 November 1987 the Chambre d' Accusation rejected
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