Sarawak governor Abdul Taib Mahmud lawyers have rebutted claims that the former chief minister's family received a US$5 million (RM18 million) mansion for US$1 (RM3.61) from a tycoon's family in 1991.
 
Mishcon de Reya, a British law firm acting for Taib said the transaction of the mansion between Samling founder Yaw Teck Seng's family to a member of Taib's family was done at "full market value".
 
The 9,000 square feet mansion is located in Seattle, US.
 
In a letter to Bruno Manser Fund executive director Lukas Straumann, Taib's legal team said the US$1 transaction was done internally in the Yaw family as it placed the property under the family owned WA Bolyston Inc.
 
"The vendor and acquirer - as evidenced by the public available paperwork - were the Yaw family.
 
"This transaction was internal, to and perfectly normal practice for owners of a large property.
 
"Neither Abdul Taib Mahmud nor any of his family were party to that process, or had any interest in the property or company at that time,"  read the letter disclosed by BMF.
 
It was only later that the company, together with the property under it, was transacted to Taib's family at "full market value", said Taib's legal team.
 
"Subsequently, WA Boylston Inc was then sold on, in a legal transaction at a full market value, to a company controlled by members of Abdul Taib Mahmud's family," read the letter.
 
BMF in a statement today complained that Taib's legal team did not provide documentary evidence to back up the claim or disclose the transacted amount said to be at "full market value".
 
The NGO's Straumann had questioned the transaction in his book titled: ‘Money Logging: On the Trail of the Asian Timber Mafia’ and claimed the transaction was done between the two families at US$1.
 
Samling is a major recipient of logging concessions in Sarawak when Taib was chief minister.
 
Taib's lawyer dismissed the the claim in Straumann's book, stating that it is a "normal transaction turned into a totally fictitious bribe".