KUALA LUMPUR, April 28 — Mamfor Sdn Bhd’s payment of RM19.5 million in frequent and large transactions in 2021 and 2022 as “donations” to Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia was unusual, and all 29 cheques used to pay the money was flagged internally as suspicious transactions, the High Court heard today.

Bank Muamalat’s PKNS Shah Alam assistant branch manager Norazeanti Miswan said this while testifying as the ninth prosecution witness in Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s corruption and money laundering trial.

Norazeanti said her bank branch had internally reported each of Mamfor’s 29 Bank Muamalat cheques, due to the “large and frequent withdrawals paid to” Bersatu.

“Yes, each transaction carried out, totalling 29, each of the transactions had a questionable activity report or internal suspicious transaction report that was sent to Bank Muamalat’s headquarters for further evaluation, as there was doubts on each transaction carried out by Mamfor Sdn Bhd,” she said.

Norazeanti explained that this was because each of the cheques ranged from RM500,000 to RM2 million, and as the transactions were continuously made from 2021 to 2022 to the same recipient.

Responding to lead prosecutor Datuk Wan Shaharuddin Wan Ladin, Norazeanti — who has been a banker for 16 years — said the RM19.5 million payments by Mamfor was unusual for a company “because I don’t see other companies doing such transactions.”

“Because normally, other companies will may payments in line with the nature of business of that company. I don’t see other companies paying to other political parties lah,” she said.

Earlier, Norazeanti said Mamfor’s nature of business was “construction”, but it had paid the RM19.5 million to Bersatu which is a political party.

Based on banking documents, Norazeanti said Mamfor had only stated “donation” as the purpose of paying the RM19.5 million to Bersatu, confirming that the company did not use the words “political donation”. 

Asked by Wan Shaharuddin, she confirmed that Mamfor had only donated to Bersatu and did not make donations to other political parties, such as Umno, PAS and DAP.

She said Mamfor had closed its Bank Muamalat account on February 26 last year, after the bank sent a notice of account closure to the company.

Donation, political donation, ‘sumbangan’? It’s all the same 

Later Norazeanti confirmed that four of Mamfor’s cheques issued on November 11 and November 16, 2022 had stated “political donation” as the purpose of payment to Bersatu.

Deputy public prosecutor Noralis Mat then asked about the difference between three different terms that Mamfor had used in banking documents for payments to Bersatu — “donation”, “sumbangan” and “political donation”. 

Norazeanti replied: “I consider the purpose is still the same, is ‘sumbangan’ (donation). Just that ‘sumbangan’, to me, refers to a specific purpose, because it is paid to a political party.”

Norazeanti confirmed that there was still money in Mamfor’s account when Bank Muamalat informed the company through a letter that the account would be closed.

Asked why the letter was sent, she said her bank branch had merely carried out instructions from the bank’s headquarters.

When Noralis asked why the instructions to close the account was only given in 2025 when the flagged transactions happened during 2021 and 2022, she said she was unsure.

Mamfor’s RM19.5m cheques had entered Bersatu’s CIMB and AmBank accounts  

Based on court testimony Mamfor’s 29 cheques’ numbers match the cheques which had previously been recorded as having entered Bersatu’s CIMB and AmBank accounts.

Out of Mamfor’s 29 cheques, 20 of them totalling RM14.5 million had entered Bersatu’s CIMB account from August 2021 to November 2022.

The remaining nine Mamfor cheques totalling RM5 million had entered Bersatu’s AmBank account from February to November 2022.

In this trial, Muhyiddin is facing seven charges, namely four counts of alleged power abuse to obtain RM225.3m bribes for Bersatu (from Nepturis Sdn Bhd, Azman Yusoff, Bukhary Equity Sdn Bhd, and RM19.5 million from Mamfor Sdn Bhd) and three counts of alleged money laundering through money that Bersatu received from Bukhary Equity.

The trial before High Court judge Noor Ruwena Md Nurdin will resume tomorrow.