MACC officer rejects suggestion that Zahid’s charity Yayasan Akalbudi could take political donations or give out loans

KUALA LUMPUR, March 18 — A Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) investigator today rejected the idea that Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s poverty-eradication charitable foundation Yayasan Akalbudi could have accepted “political donations” or given out money as loans, arguing that it is not entitled to do so.

MACC officer Khairudin Kilau said this while testifying as the 99th and final prosecution witness in Zahid’s ongoing trial involving 47 charges relating to criminal breach of trust of Yayasan Akalbudi funds, bribery and money laundering. Zahid is a trustee and director of Yayasan Akalbudi.

While testifying at the High Court here, Khairudin dismissed Zahid’s lawyers’ suggestion that the huge sums of money that flowed in and out of Yayasan Akalbudi were loans given out by the foundation as investment or political donations received by the foundation.

Zahid’s lawyer Datuk Ahmad Zaidi Zainal today sought to suggest that Yayasan Akalbudi’s source of funds originated from Zahid himself from “donations he received, from his salary, from his investments in shares”.

Khairudin then added that only Zahid, in his own statement during investigations, had said that he contributed to Yayasan Akalbudi, but that other witnesses in the case had not said the same thing.

Khairudin confirmed that he did not carry out further investigations into Zahid’s claim to have donated his income to Yayasan Akalbudi, agreeing with Zaidi that this meant it is not known how much was contributed to the foundation.

Zaidi later repeatedly tried to insist that there were political donations contributed by third parties to Yayasan Akalbudi, but the MACC investigator disagreed and said there were no such political donations based on his investigation.

Khairudin also disagreed that there were donations from third parties to Zahid and Yayasan Akalbudi as political donations.

Earlier today, Khairudin said Yayasan Akalbudi had paid out RM360,000 in two cheques in August 2015 and November 2016 to TS Consultancy & Resources, noting that TS’s owners Jasni Majid and Sabri Said had confirmed that it was formed in 2015 to register voters together with Umno’s cooperation and had received funds from Umno in the early stages.

Khairudin agreed with Zaidi that the registration of new voters is a political activity, but went on to stress that Yayasan Akalbudi could not accept political donations.

Zaidi: If political donations are used for political activities, is there an issue?

Khairudin: If it’s political donation, it’s for bodies involved in politics. Akalbudi cannot because it is not a political body, it is a foundation.

Last week, Khairudin had said Yayasan Akalbudi’s Memorandum of Association or company constitution stated its objective as the receiving and administering of funds to eradicate poverty and the improvement of the poor’s welfare and research on poverty eradication programmes.

Last week, Khairudin also 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.

Yayasan Akalbudi not a moneylender

Zaidi sought to suggest that Yayasan Akalbudi’s RM1.3 million cheque handed over by Zahid’s son-in-law in November 2015 to Persatuan Bola Sepak PDRM was a “loan” as the police’s football association had later repaid RM1 million, but Khairudin disagreed that it was a “loan”.

Today, Khairudin had also testified of Yayasan Akalbudi’s giving of a RM10 million cheque in November 2015 to Armada Holdings Sdn Bhd, which was repaid by the company in February 2016 in the form of a RM10 million cheque and a separate cheque for RM69,722.65 for interest at a 4 per cent rate determined by Armada’s CEO.

Khairudin agreed with Zaidi that the RM10 million was a loan to Armada and that Yayasan Akalbudi had made a profit in three months’ time with the interest from the loan, but disagreed that it could be considered an investment.

Zaidi: In this concept, if I say that it is a form of investment made by Yayasan Akalbudi to generate profits, can you agree with me?

Khairudin: Disagree.

Zaidi: Why do you disagree?

Khairudin: To issue loans, it must be from bodies that have licence as a licenced money-lending company. Yayasan Akalbudi is not a licenced money-lending company. Another thing, for an activity involving the outflow of such a big sum of money, RM10 million, requires agreement from other trustees.

Khairudin went on to say that the other trustees in Yayasan Akalbudi were never informed of the outflow of the RM10 million, also pointing out that they would not have been able to object to the transaction since they were not notified of it.

Among other things, Khairudin confirmed to Zaidi that no Yayasan Akalbudi trustee had complained or lodged reports with the MACC or with the police to protest the use of the foundation’s funds for any reason.

Khairudin had last week also told the court that Yayasan Akalbudi’s finances and activities were all managed by Zahid himself, and that the other trustees did not know of any clear activities by the foundation and were also never notified of who contributed and how much was donated to the foundation.

Khairudin had last week said that the other trustees only knew that the foundation carried out welfare activities especially for residents of Bagan Datuk relating to donations to mosques and tahfiz centres.

The trial before High Court judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah resumes tomorrow, with Zahid’s lead defence lawyer Hisyam Teh Poh Teik expected to cross-examine Khairudin.