.JPG "Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi is pictured at the Kuala Lumpur High Court in Kuala Lumpur March 10, 2021. u00e2u20acu201d Picture by Firdaus Latif")
KUALA LUMPUR, March 18 — Funds totalling RM100 million flowed out of charity Yayasan Akalbudi — where Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi was a trustee and a director — between December 2012 and May 2018, the High Court was told today during the former deputy prime minister’s trial on 47 charges relating to bribery, criminal breach of trust and money-laundering.
Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) investigator Khairudin Kilau who is the 99th and final prosecution witness to testify also said roughly RM100 million was also channelled into the foundation’s bank account during the same period.
Khairudin said MACC’s preliminary investigations on this case started in 2016, and that he was formally appointed its investigating officer in June 2018.
He also told the court that Yayasan Akalbudi only had one bank account and that the authorities did not freeze the account during the investigations.
During questioning, deputy public prosecutor Lee Keng Fatt referred the witness to Yayasan Akalbudi’s Affin Bank account statement for the period from December 12, 2012 to May 31, 2018.
Khairudin said that the records showed that around RM100 million had been withdrawn from the account during this period, with around RM100 million also deposited during that period.
He affirmed that the authorities did not block any transactions of incoming or outgoing funds for Yayasan Akalbudi’s bank account during investigations.
He also said the same bank statement for that period showed the last withdrawal, a sum of RM9,302,823.66, was made on May 28, 2018.
Khairudin said this amount was paid out by Yayasan Akalbudi to Yayasan Al-Falah, but said the purpose of such a payment was unclear.
He said that in his investigations, he did not find any meeting minutes or resolutions about the transfer of this amount. (Other prosecution witnesses in Zahid’s trial had previously said Yayasan Al-Falah is a foundation linked to Zahid’s family, with Zahid’s younger brother being the foundation’s chairman.)
Khairudin also said his investigations found that Yayasan Akalbudi and Yayasan Al-Falah did not have any official relationship, and that there were no meeting minutes or resolutions of any contribution or transfers of funds from Yayasan Akalbudi to Yayasan Al-Falah.
He confirmed that this RM9 million sum was transferred out from Yayasan Akalbudi after the 14th general elections. The elections had taken place on May 9, 2018.
“On this date, the power to transfer money was with the accused because he is the sole signatory in Yayasan Akalbudi,” Khairudin replied when the prosecution asked who had the authority to transfer money out from Yayasan Akalbudi on May 28, 2018.
Last week, Khairudin told the court that bank records showed that Zahid had become the sole signatory of Yayasan Akalbudi’s Affin Bank account from June 2013 onwards.
Later when asked by Zahid’s lawyer Datuk Ahmad Zaidi Zainal, Khairudin agreed that the roughly RM100 million coming in and about RM100 million going out were the total amounts accumulated from the moment Yayasan Akalbudi opened its Affin Bank account in 1997 until 2018, instead of just merely from the December 2012 to May 2018 period reflected in the set of bank statements in court.
As for the RM9 million sum transferred to Yayasan Al-Falah, Khairudin initially said he was unclear but also then confirmed to Zaidi that he knew it was to pay for a mosque.
The office that was not there
Among other things, Khairudin said he had obtained documents from the Companies Commission of Malaysia and Yayasan Akalbudi’s company secretary, and that he had went to the registered address of Yayasan Akalbudi to investigate.
Lee: Did you find any documents about Yayasan Akalbudi in that office?
Khairudin: No documents were found, because there is no office for Yayasan Akalbudi at the registered address.
When asked to explain further, Khairudin said: “Checks at the registered address showed that Yayasan Akalbudi never operated at the address that was registered.”
A company search by Malay Mail in October 2018 of the Companies Commission of Malaysia’s records showed Yayasan Akalbudi’s registered address to be No. 69E-4, Jalan Raja Abdullah in Kuala Lumpur.
Khairudin also confirmed that he had not discovered any documents relating to records of donations entering in or being transferred out of Yayasan Akalbudi.
Among other things, Khairudin today also said his investigations had showed that Zahid had previously instructed a partner in law firm Lewis & Co in 2016 to handle the funds, with RM17,953,185.21 or RM17.9 million issued as a cheque from an Affin Bank account and deposited into the law firm’s client account in June 2016. Lewis & Co was previously appointed in 2006 to 2007 to handle civil cases for Zahid, Khairudin said.
When asked by Lee, Khairudin said that his investigations showed that Lewis & Co has no relationship with Yayasan Akalbudi and was never appointed as a trustee or lawyer for the foundation.
Khairudin said however that Yayasan Al-Falah is the client of Lewis & Co as the law firm had opened a file for the foundation, and that Zahid was also a client of the law firm as a file under his name was found at the law firm.
As for documents such as the bank statements for Zahid’s personal credit card bills, cheque butts and a stamp bearing Zahid’s signature, Khairudin confirmed to the prosecution that he could not obtain such documents from Zahid’s former aide Major Mazlina Mazlan @ Ramly.
“I did carry out investigations to obtain these documents through Major Mazlina but was informed these documents were no longer in keeping because of the moving of office during the power transition after GE14,” Khairudin said, confirming that he had obtained and verified such documents from banks instead.
Later when asked by Zaidi, Khairudin confirmed that the stamp bearing Zahid’s signature exists despite not being able to find it, saying that this is based on Mazlina’s statement as a witness.
Zaidi also read out in court part of a police report filed by Zahid on December 31, 2020, where the politician had claimed that he had appointed Lewis & Co as the trustee for Yayasan Akalbudi and also insisted that the funds held by the law firm were for Yayasan Akalbudi instead of Yayasan Al-Falah.
In this trial, Zahid ― who is a former home minister and currently the Umno president ― is facing 47 charges, namely 12 counts of criminal breach of trust in relation to charitable foundation Yayasan Akalbudi’s funds, 27 counts of money laundering, and eight counts of bribery charges.
The trial before High Court judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah resumes tomorrow, with Zahid’s lawyers expected to continue cross-examining the MACC investigator.
