Sunday, May 02, 2010

Lebanese "Billionaire"

In the news for a couple of years now, a self-proclaimed "billionaire" called Elie who is a Lebanese has been splashed on the front covers of the daily here. As far as I remember, here are the things that has brought been brought to our nations' attention:
  1. First cast into the spotlight was when he pledged to donate USD1mil to the National Cancer Centre. Of course the folks there were elated to have such a huge donation and made a press conference. But...
  2. Many people started coming forward when they saw his face on the front page and claimed they were conned by this guy and had lost lots of money. A background research also found no such billionaire listed from his nation.
  3. Found out he was staying in some apartment with a teenager for a "wife". Religious Departments said she was underaged to be married and questioned the authority of the "Imam" who married them.
  4. About a year ago, he was staying in a hotel in KL and had given the lady who cleaned his room a USD100 tip. She was over the moon but when she tried to convert it, she was told it was fake. Police busted his room and found loads of fake notes stashed in suitcases under the bed.
  5. About a month ago, he was still in the limelight for threatening to "destroy" his "wife" (this is a different wife from before) and her family if they spoke to people about him. I think there was another teenage wife who mysteriously fell to her death from a high rise building.
  6. It was here when he declared himself a "Christian" but all his wives are Malays. Doesn't our Syariah Court have something against non-Islam spouses who MUST convert? I know of so many Malay girls who have married non-Malaysians yet the husbands all had to still change their religion. Remember, this is the Syariah Court that sentenced caning to a woman who was drinking alcohol.
  7. Even more recently, he was caught with his pants down with a prostitute in a hotel. Bail was only a RM2,000.

Incredible, no? My question is, why is this guy still walking freely around Malaysia? Are we a nation that allows criminals to roam freely? This alone is like an advertisement to all criminals out there. "Hey, if you have the cash (or promise to have cash, or doesn't matter if it's fake either), just come to Malaysia. You can marry sweet young things, destroy them if they don't succumb to you and still be a free man". 

And they say USA is a land of the free. Malaysia Boleh!

1 comment:

Ron said...

I remember reading about that guy - he made it to the front headlines! I'm shocked that he's still roaming around - I thought they locked him up. Obviously you can pay the local police "rasuah" with fake money too!
Sometimes I think I'm an idiot for still holding on to my Malaysian citizenship....