UPDATED @ 04:03:38 PM 30-01-2012
January 30, 2012
PETALING JAYA, Jan 30 — PKR claimed today that a National Feedlot Corporation (NFCorp) official had asked Datuk Shamsubahrin Ismail to bribe police in an attempt to close investigations into allegations of abuse of public funds.
Party vice-president N. Surendran, who said he is now Shamsubahrin’s lawyer, distributed a police report made by his client on January 27 to reporters which states that he was “made a scapegoat in the NFC scandal.”
Shamsubahrin(picture) said in the report that he received “calls and SMSes pressuring me to bribe police to close the NFC case.”
“I have proof in the form of an SMS. I was not willing to do so although I was pressured repeatedly. I only replied saying I would try to sort out the matter,” the report said.
Shamsubahrin accused the NFCorp official of “cheating me by appointing me as Corporate Advisor and Consultant” in November 2011 which he said was a false appointment.
PKR had disclosed an email earlier this month detailing how NFCorp’s lawyer allegedly told a Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission advisory board member that an official in the company had been tricked into paying money to a “conman” to influence a police probe into the project.
According to the email, the lawyer told the advisory board member how the NFC official had been tricked into paying money to a “conman” — understood to be Shamsubahrin — to allegedly influence ongoing investigations by the police.
Tan Sri Megat Najmuddin Megat Khas confirmed to The Malaysian Insider that he authored the email which PKR has presented as proof that a top NFC official had allegedly tried to bribe the police.
Shamsubahrin was recently charged with cheating NFCorp chairman Datuk Seri Mohamad Salleh Ismail of RM1.76 million in fraudulent consultancy fees.
The businessman, who Surendran said is still under remand in Sungai Buloh “because he fears for his safety”, was charged last week with two further counts of cheating.
In the police report, the 45-year-old said that these “charges and investigations against me are baseless.”
Mohamed Salleh had earlier said Shamsubahrin was neither a relative nor has he ever been an NFC employee.
NFCorp’s assets were frozen after investigations were launched by police and the MACC following a series of exposes by PKR against the company owned by senior minister Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil’s family.
The opposition party has accused NFCorp of spending at least RM27 million in public funds on land, property and expenses unrelated to cattle farming.
Shahrizat returns to ministerial duties on February 6 after taking three weeks’ leave to allow the authorities to complete their probes.
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