KUALA LUMPUR: More than RM13.1 million was used by Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s Yayasan Akalbudi for various purposes including credit card and vehicle insurance payments, the High Court was told.
Deputy public prosecutor Raja Rozela Raja Toran said 50 cheques were issued between 2014 and 2016, using Yayasan Akalbudi’s bank account.
Besides credit card and vehicle insurance payments, the funds were paid to two companies and a football club.
Besides the 50 cheques, she added that RM17.9 million from Yayasan Akalbudi, kept in seven fixed deposit accounts, was transferred to law firm Lewis & Co.
“The total sum that has been misappropriated from the foundation is RM31 million,” Rozela said in her closing submissions at the end of the prosecution’s case.
Zahid is standing trial on 47 counts of money laundering and criminal breach of trust (CBT) involving millions of ringgit from Yayasan Akalbudi and accepting bribes for various projects during his tenure as home minister.
Twelve of the charges are for CBT, eight for corruption and the remaining 27 for money laundering.
The prosecution has affirmed that Zahid had a “free hand” in managing Yayasan Akalbudi.
“There was no record of any board meeting or AGM (annual general meeting) to pass any resolution on how the money should be spent.
“Yayasan Akalbudi has never been audited and the SSM (Companies Commission of Malaysia) has no record of its financial report,” Rozela said.
She also told the court that Yayasan Akalbudi’s former trustees – Mohd Samsuri Tun, Zulkifli Senteri, Muhammad Nabil Saleh and Khairuddin Tarmizi – were “mere puppets on a string”.
“They were there just to fill up the numbers for Yayasan’s trustees.
“The accused (Zahid) did not (only) ‘control’ Yayasan Akalbudi’s money but also dominated the trustees,” Rozela added.
The court heard that Samsuri and Zulkifli were Yayasan Akalbudi’s trustees from 1997 to 2012. They were replaced by Nabil and Khairuddin.
The hearing before High Court judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah continues tomorrow. - FMT
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