Anson Wong smuggling through new firm, say MPs

PETALING JAYA: Convicted wildlife smuggler Anson Wong is using a new outfit to traffic in endangered species and the Department of Wildlife and National Parks knows about it, according to two Pakatan Rakyat MPs.

Speaking to reporters here today, Padang Serai MP N Surendran and Serdang MP Ong Kian Ming said Wong and his wife Cheah Beng Shee were operating through a Penang-based company named Rona Wildlife.

Records with the Registrar of Companies show that Rona Wildlife is owned by two Indian men, but the MPs alleged that they were fronting for Wong and Cheah.

Surendran and Ong exhibited documents to back their allegation.

Showing two utilities bills, Surendran pointed out that Cheah’s address was identical with Rona Wildlife’s.

“It is an outfit or establishment which belongs to Anson Wong and his wife,” he said.

He alleged that the couple could not be operating Rona Wildlife without the complicity of Department of Wildlife and National Parks.

Ong questioned the authorities for not raiding Rona Wildlife’s premises, saying there could be endangered wildlife species there.

He noted that the Wildlife Conservation Act allows wildlife officers to search and seize without a warrant.

Wong returned to the limelight recently following Al Jazeera’s broadcast of “The Return of the Lizard King”, a documentary about his alleged activities.

Ong said he met chief commissioner Abu Kassim Mohamed of the MACC yesterday and the latter told him the anti-corruption agency had spent three years unsuccessfully looking for evidence of corruption involving Wong and the Department of Wildlife and National Parks.

Surendran, referring to an article in National Geographic, said Malaysia was the main hub for international wildlife trafficking and urged Natural Resources and Environment Minister G Palanivel to treat the allegation seriously.

In 1998, a court in the United States convicted Wong for smuggling endangered species and sentenced him to 71 months in prison.

In 2010, he was arrested at KLIA after his suitcase broke open while he was in transit to Jakarta, revealing 95 boa constrictors. He was sentenced to five years’ jail, but his term was reduced to 17 months on appeal and he was released in February 2012.

In October 2010, the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry announced that it had revoked all licenses held by Wong and his wife and rejected their applications for new permits.