KUALA LUMPUR, April 13 — A firm called KCJ Engineering Sdn Bhd had sent out RM800,000 via four Maybank Islamic cheques in the same day in 2022 to Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia, a Maybank banker confirmed today during Bersatu president and former prime minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s trial.
Maybank’s Shah Alam main branch operations officer Chang Hui Chin, 50, confirmed that the RM800,000 had gone out to Bersatu.
“Maybank already pay out this money,” she told the High Court here as the sixth prosecution witness, before confirming that the cheques would go into Bersatu’s bank account.
Chang confirmed that these four cheques of RM200,000 each dated September 1, 2022 were all paid out to Bersatu on October 12, 2022:
- Cheque number 035155 (RM200,000)
- Cheque number 035156 (RM200,000)
- Cheque number 035157 (RM200,000)
- Cheque number 035158 (RM200,000)
Last month, CIMB Bank’s KL Sentral branch manager Lee Hui Nee had, as the second prosecution witness, confirmed that RM19.3 million in 28 cheques entered Bersatu’s CIMB account from August 2021 to November 2022.
Out of these 28 cheques, Lee had confirmed four Maybank Islamic cheques with the same cheque dates (September 1, 2022), cheque amounts (RM200,000 each) and cheque deposit dates (October 12, 2022).
Among other things, Chang today testified that KCJ Engineering had opened its Maybank Islamic account at her bank branch in 2005, with the company’s three signatories being Zulhelmi Mairin @ Kunting, Datuk Azman Yusoff, and Mohd Zaid Yusoff.
The four cheques totalling RM800,000 to Bersatu were signed by Zulhelmi and Mohd Zaid.
When cross-examined by Muhyiddin’s lawyer Datuk Amer Hamzah Arshad, Chang agreed that these four transactions involving the four cheques are “transparent”, as these would be recorded in bank statements and the cheque recipient Bersatu’s account.
Earlier today, former RoS assistant director Mohamad Amin Idris testified as the fourth prosecution witness, where he confirmed that the annual financial statements submitted by Bersatu to the RoS had recorded money coming in but without specific details of the source of funds.
When cross-examined by Amer, Amin agreed that Bersatu’s party constitution allows the political party to receive donations from any individual or company, and that the donation is required to be kept in the party’s account.
After agreeing that the Societies Act does not require financial statements to be prepared in a specific format with detailed information and that many societies do not give detailed statements, Amin confirmed that Bersatu’s financial statements had recorded incoming transactions as “donation” and the amount.
Amin agreed the RoS has the power to ask for additional information from Bersatu about these transactions if necessary, and that he had not felt the need to ask for additional information then.
Amin agreed with Amer that Bersatu was not deregistered while he was working at the RoS from December 2020 to June 2025, and further agreed there was nothing unusual or suspicious about Bersatu’s affairs while he was supervising it as an RoS officer.
Among other things, Amin had agreed with Amer that the president cannot be said to be controlling Bersatu, and that Bersatu’s property or money cannot be controlled by a single individual but has to be held by either trustees or the party’s governing body.
He agreed that Bersatu’s governing body would either be the general assembly, or the party’s supreme council when there is no general assembly.
Later when asked by deputy public prosecutor Datuk Wan Shaharuddin Wan Ladin, Amin explained that the RoS could deregister a society if it had been found to have breached the law, such as when there are investigations on abuse of funds or its members were convicted of crimes or if there was “kongsi gelap” (secret societies), or if there are instructions from enforcement agencies such as the police and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission.
When asked by Wan Shaharuddin if Bersatu’s president is merely a rubberstamp or someone who handles the party’s affairs based on a provision in Bersatu’s constitution, Amin said that the president would be someone who takes care of the party’s affairs.
Today, Jazman Azi Jamalludin — formerly a division secretary at the Prime Minister’s Department’s Cabinet, Constitution and Intergovernmental Relations Division — as the fifth prosecution witness testified that Muhyiddin was prime minister from March 1, 2020 to August 20, 2021 with a monthly salary of RM22,826.65 and monthly allowance of around RM32,865.
The trial before High Court judge Noor Ruwena Md Nurdin resumes this Thursday, with several more bankers expected to testify as prosecution witnesses.
The prosecution had previously said it expects to call around 30 prosecution witnesses to testify in Muhyiddin’s trial.
