PKR man reveals new twist to NFC saga

Rafizi Ramli produces new documents to show that the scandal-ridden corporation may have violated the Anti-Money Laundering Act.

PETALING JAYA: PKR’s strategy director Rafizi Ramli produced new documents which suggested that the scandal-ridden National Feedlot Corporation (NFCorp) could have breached the Anti-Money Laundering Act (AMLA) on top of abusing public funds.

He accused NFCorp of transfering money illegally – using a “middle man company” that was “totally unrelated” to NFC – to purchase 1,275 live cattle from Australian South East Asian Livestock Services Pty Ltd (SEALS).

The company, Singapore-based Global Biofuture Pte Ltd, was owned and controlled by the family of former minister Shahrizat Abdul Jalil.

Showing reporters three documents – an e-mail communication, an invoice and a cheque payment request – Rafizi said that these proved that it was a possible breach of AMLA.

“The purchase of these cattle worth millions of ringgit was then paid by the National Meat & Livestock Corporation Sdn Bhd (NMLC), which uses public funds given to NFC, when the purchase of the cattle was made by Global Biofuture which has nothing to do with NMLC and NFCorp,” he said.

Rafizi said the authorities must immediately act to investigate the operations of Global Biofuture, and any further transfer of funds which involved the RM250 million government soft loan given to NFCorp.

“This transaction must be investigated immediately by Bank Negara and the authorities, seeing as it could have breached AMLA and at the same time be a misuse of public funds,” he told reporters at the PKR headquarters this morning.

Rafizi said that the presense of the “middle man” company also prompted several questions:

Is Shahrizat’s family making a double profit in the buying of cattle from outside the country which was supplied to NFC?

Is Global Biofuture making a profit out of nothing by imposing margins when it sold the cattle to NFC?

Why couldn’t NFC directly buy the cattle from the supplier without going through a middle man company which was coincidentally also owned by Shahrizat’s family?

“This transfer of funds by companies controlled by Shahrizat’s family seems to go against the mandate and purpose of NFC,” he said.

‘AMLA charge more serious’

Explaining the documents he revealed today, Rafizi said that they were part of the series of information he received from whistleblowers during his investigation into the scandal.

“One is an e-mail dated October 2010 from one Donna Yong, a Meatworks Singapore staff responsible for the Shahrizat family’s operations in Singapore, to the financial department of NFC and copied to three of Shahrizat’s children,” he said.

Another was a request by Yong for the preparation of a cheque by NMLC, which was privately controlled by Shahrizat’s family, so that a payment of US$ 990,402 (about RM3 million) could be made to a bank account in Singapore.

The third was an invoice from SEALS, dated Oct 14, which confirmed that payment was made for the import of the cattle by Global Biofutures. The reference number was the same for the latter two documents.

“NMLC must be prosectued if they are paying other people’s debts, even though the owners of the companies consist of the same people; it is illegal. This is something wrong under the Companies Act,” said Rafizi, who said that a report would be lodged on Thursday.

“Under AMLA, the authorities are supposed to investigate when there are transactions that are suspect,” he said.

Rafizi said that although he had been charged under the Banking and Financial Institutions Act (Bafia), an AMLA charge was much more serious.