Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said he founded Yayasan Akalbudi in 1997 for the sake of charity and religion as at the time he was using about three-quarters of his monthly corporate salary of RM120,000 for such purposes anyway.
He said this in his witness statement today in the court hearing of his 47 charges involving criminal breach of trust (CBT), corruption and money laundering in relation to Yayasan Akalbudi funds.
“At the time (when still in the corporate world), I was earning a salary of about RM120,000 a month and I only used about RM30,000 to RM40,000 for my own use and my family. The rest I used for charity, wakaf, infaq and other charity work for religious and welfare purposes.
“On the basis of doing charity work and religious purposes, I formed a foundation named Yayasan Budi in 1997 (the name was later changed to Yayasan Akalbudi),” Zahid said.
He added that the foundation did not only focus on his parliamentary constituency of Bagan Datuk, but was meant to help those in need in general.
As such, Zahid said he had never instructed anyone to use funds from Yayasan Akalbudi for personal reasons.
He also affirmed that the expenses and liabilities of Yayasan Akalbudi were borne by him personally.
During the initial stage of its formation, a large part of the foundation’s funding came from his personal savings from his time in the corporate world, he added.
‘Anyone can contribute’
The former deputy prime minister told the court that Yayasan Akalbudi accepts all forms of contributions and funding from anyone who would like to contribute to welfare and charity work.
“After Yayasan Akalbudi’s charity work became more well known by other people from 2013, Yayasan Akalbudi began getting contributions from my friends such as (former defence forces chief) Mohamed Hashim Ali, (businesspersons) Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary, Halim Saad and Ahmad Johan.
“I would like to stress that Yayasan Akalbudi has never once asked, but only promoted to individuals and companies that they can contribute funding to Yayasan Akalbudi.
“Yayasan Akalbudi has never once blocked or stopped anyone from contributing to the foundation,” he added.
Zahid took to the witness stand this morning to testify under oath, with the prosecution given the opportunity to question the accused during cross-examination.
On Jan 24, High Court judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah had ordered Zahid to enter his defence on 12 CBT charges, eight for corruption and 27 for money laundering involving tens of millions of ringgit belonging to the foundation.
The trial began on Nov 18, 2019. The prosecution closed its case on March 19, 2021, after calling 99 witnesses. - Mkini
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