Ku Nan claims sold off stock portfolio to be debt-free minister

Former federal territories minister Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor told the court today that he had sold off most of his stock portfolio before he joined the government, in order to become a debt-free minister.

"I have sold (most of my shares) so that I had zero-debt, so I can concentrate on the job which I have been asked to do," he said during his trial at the Kuala Lumpur High Court for the charge of accepting RM2 million in bribes.

He first joined the government in 2001 as a deputy minister in the Prime Minister's Department under Dr Mahathir Mohamad, and was later made tourism minister by Abdullah Ahmad Badawi in 2006.

The Putrajaya MP said among the shares he sold included Telekom as well as Mutiara Telekom, which is now known as Digi.

"I sold my shares (in Mutiara Telekom) for just RM480 million. If I kept it, today it is worth RM5 billion," he said.

He also sold off a large chunk of his shares in Sime Darby (Hyundai) retaining only 15 percent in marginal shares.

Besides Hyundai, Tengku Adnan told the courts that he only retained shares in his family firm Tadmansori, as well as an unnamed public listed company. 

He said he has since relinquished his stocks in the public listed company.

All of these, Tengku Adnan testified, had been noted in his asset declarations to prime ministers.

Yesterday, during questioning, Tengku Adnan revealed that he declared assets amounting to RM938,643,566,16 in 2001 to Mahathir.

In 2006, he declared to Abdullah that his assets amounted to RM711,325,822.

In 2013, Tengku Adnan declared that his assets amounted to RM691,770,649 to then prime minister Najib Abdul Razak. Tengku Adnan was federal territories minister for an entire term.

In 2016, Tengku Adnan made another asset declaration of RM782,748,061.

He is currently facing trial for accepting an RM2 million bribe from a property developer.

The defence team's strategy involves proving that Tengku Adnan was already wealthy and had no need for the bribe.

Meanwhile, on a separate line of questioning, he revealed that Umno did not keep a record of the political contributions it received.

"We didn't want that information falling into the wrong hands," he said. - Mkini