More to be charged in NFC scandal

By Shannon Teoh

March 15, 2012

KUALA LUMPUR, March 15 — Public prosecutors are set to charge a top National Feedlot Corporation (NFCorp) official and two government appointees to its board in relation to abuse of a RM250 million federal loan by the company belonging to Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil’s family.

The New Straits Times reported today the civil servants may be charged with failing to execute their fiduciary duties under Section 132 of the Companies Act while the top management official will likely be hauled up for criminal breach of trust.

According to the English-language daily, he “was being investigated for allegedly allowing company funds to be channelled into private companies unrelated to NFCorp but owned by its directors.”

“The NFCorp case is far from over,” the Umno-controlled newspaper quoted Attorney General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail (picture) as saying.

It also cited a source as saying that probes by graftbusters into Shahrizat’s husband and NFCorp chairman Datuk Seri Dr Mohamed Salleh Ismail, who is facing two counts of CBT and another two for violations of the Companies Act, and Datuk Shamsubahrin Ismail, who is alleged to have cheated the former of RM1.7 million, are being wrapped up.

The Malaysian Insider understands that Shamsubahrin, who claims he was made a scapegoat when he refused to bribe police as requested by NFCorp, will be questioned by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) today.

Salleh pleaded not guilty on Monday with criminal breach of trust and violating the Companies Act in relation to RM49 million in federal funds given to manage the NFC project in a scandal that has opened the Barisan Nasional (BN) government to damaging attacks ahead of elections expected soon.

This was after Shahrizat said on Sunday she would quit as women, family and community development minister when her senatorship ends on April 8.

Her resignation came after four-and-a-half months of being dogged by allegations that she and her family used public funds to finance over RM62 million of land, property and expenses unrelated to cattle farming.

The DAP has also accused NFCorp directors of cashing out RM12 million from the federal loan by channeling it through one of their companies in Singapore.

NFCorp, tasked with running the national cattle farming scheme, is headed by Shahrizat’s husband and their three children. The NFC project in Gemas, Negeri Sembilan, was awarded to the company in 2006, when Shahrizat was in Cabinet.

She had previously resisted calls from the opposition as well as Umno veterans such as Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad to quit, stressing that she was “only the wife” of Salleh and had nothing to do with the embattled entity.

NFCorp hit the national headlines after it made it into the Auditor-General’s Report last year for missing production targets.