'Charles not in Kevin Morais' will as he was already rich'

Charles Suresh Morais was not included in the will of murdered deputy public prosecutor Anthony Kevin Morais' because he was already a wealthy businessman.

A source close to Charles said this in response to younger brother Richard Dilaan Morais who cited the will as evidence that Charles and Kevin were not close as claimed.

"What Richard is saying is rubbish. Kevin's will was made in 2005 and he left Richard only 7.5 percent of his estate.

"He didn't leave Charles anything simply because Charles was a rich man," the source told Malaysiakini.

The source added that despite Charles already knowing he would get nothing from Kevin's will, he went out of his way to dig up the truth about the eldest brother's murder.

"Charles knew he wasn't entitled to any of Kevin's estate but he spent time and money here (in Malaysia) trying to get to the bottom of Kevin's murder.

"What was Richard doing all the time? Nothing, except causing trouble," said the source.

Charles has been living in Atlanta, United States, since 1984.

He had, on Thursday, made an explosive statutory declaration (SD) in Kuala Lumpur alleging conspiracy in the murder of Kevin, who was a DPP attached to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).

‘Expediting the cremation’

In the SD, he claimed Kevin had confided in him that he was working on a case involving Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak and his wife Rosmah Mansor.

Charles also claimed that Kevin had sent to him a pen drive via courier containing evidence which implicated individuals in power and has arranged for it to be revealed if anything should befall him.

According to Charles, he was the only brother Kevin was close to as he was not on good terms with Richard (photo) and another brother, David Ramesh Morais.

"I was therefore surprised that Richard was apparently behaving as if he was very close to Kevin and was portraying a very unusual concern to expedite the funeral cremation of Kevin's remains," said Charles in the SD.

He also accused Richard of taking instructions from “high-ranking officers" to hastily dispose of Kevin's body so as to prevent a second post-mortem to cover up his murder.

Richard had claimed Kevin's body on Nov 23 against Charles’ wish, which he said prompted him to make the SD.

Name not in will

Richard yesterday disputed that Charles was close to Kevin, using the will made in 2005 as justification.

“If Kevin is so close to him (Charles) and in the SD, he (Charles) says I am not close to Kevin [...] dead men tell no lies.

"How come the will has my name in it and your (Charles’) name is not there?

“This shows that whatever he (Charles) says doesn’t have substance at all, isn’t it?” he had told Malaysiakini, promising to reveal the will.

Charles is a successful hotelier who had been acquiring properties in the US since 1999.

By 2007, he had a total of 16 hotels under his portfolio with more than 3,100 rooms.

However, he was hit by fraud charges in 2008 for issuing bounced cheques, as he fell on hard financial times.

A source close to Charles had told Malaysiakini that the businessman had sincebounced back financially and 2008 was especially a bad year for many due to the subprime mortgage crisis in the US. -Mkini