A total of RM5 billion has been drained from a shadowy off-shore Malaysian bank based in Melbourne, leaving financial regulators in Australia stumped.

The shareholdings were dispersed just three days before Australia's Victorian Supreme Court appointed provisional liquidators, according to local newspapers today.

For a number of years, Commercial IBT (CIBT) was ranked alongside Australia's biggest banks, and had a purported $A8 billion - approximately RM20 billion - in reserves.

The company now has a paid-up capital of just RM5 and about RM150 in cash.

CIBT, which has a Malaysian banking licence issued last year and a member of the influential Asian Banking Association, is said to be linked to top Malaysian government officials.

It promoted itself as a "low-profile financial institution involved in corporate finance, general investments and other financial services".

Australian authorities clueless

The search for the missing billions has hit a stalemate with Australian regulatory officers describing the case as baffling.

An investigation by the Australian Securities and Investment Commission began in February after Malaysian regulators contacted its Australian counterparts with their concerns early this year.

This was following questions raised in the Malaysian parliament last year about CIBT operations.

PAS' former parliamentarian, Husam Musa, had in Sept 4 last year raised questions on CIBT in parliament and urged Bank Negara to investigate the company.

However, the Finance Ministry's parliamentary secretary, speaking on behalf of then finance minister, Dr Mahathir Mohamad, stated that the Labuan Offshore Financial Service Authority had investigated the company before issuing the licence.

A check in the 'About Us' section of CIBT's Labuan branch website reveals an empty page with the following note, "This page is currently being updated".

In February this year, the Australian banking regulators launched a probe on CIBT on alleged breaches of the Crimes and Corporations Acts and raided the company's premises.

Six months later, the Victorian Supreme Court appointed provisional liquidators.

But it was discovered that three days earlier, CIBT's RM4.4 billion in ordinary shares and RM1.13 billion in cash were transferred to another entity, Commercial IBT Ltd.

Liquidators have told the court they cannot find the shareholdings or details of the new entity. They added that CIBT's directors quit and its name changed to Kantoch Pty Ltd.

Who's Adrian Ong?

According to Melbourne's Herald Sun , CIBT's head office turned out to be a 20-square-metre space on a floor shared by 30 other firms on the 28th floor of a building in the city's commercial district.

The company was said to also rent a boardroom on the same floor for about RM50 an hour.

According to the liquidators, the names of some of the CIBT directors are in fact the same person - 43-year-old Malaysian Dr Adrian Chee Beng Ong, who is based in Melbourne.

There have been allegations of directors using false addresses or they are not known at the addresses they have listed.

Denying the allegations, Ong told Adelaide's The Advertiser yesterday that he and CIBT were the "victims of a political campaign".

"We did this for security reasons," he told the newspaper from "somewhere outside Australia". Ong's whereabouts is unknown.

Affidavits say Ong has claimed to investigators that he and CIBT were subjected to "threats, extortion and terrorism" from a group in Malaysia and Australia.

He has also claimed to regulators that CIBT had no creditors and the shares were cancelled to preserve his shareholders' investments. However, Ong has refused to name his "enemies".

It has been alleged that Ong was acting as a front for key politicians in Malaysia.

Investigators in Australia say CIBT's true activities remain a mystery but liquidators have traced a CIBT bank account in Malaysia which has a credit balance of about RM40,000. This had since been frozen.

Australia's court wound up the company in November.

Companies connected with CIBT, RG Investments Management Pty Ltd, Royal Corporation Pty Ltd, Value Fund International Pty Ltd and Lulamar Pty Ltd, have also been wound up.