KUALA LUMPUR: A former finance manager told the sessions court in Lim Guan Eng’s undersea tunnel corruption trial that his former boss, Zarul Ahmad Mohd Zulkifli, had “confessed” to paying bribes to the former Penang chief minister for the project.
Azli Adam, who was Consortium Zenith BUCG Sdn Bhd’s senior vice-president in charge of finance and corporate services, said the purported confession took place in January 2018.
He said Zarul had said this after he was remanded by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) during its investigation into the project.
“He confessed to me and Ibrahim Sahari (another company director) that several payments he had asked us to process from 2012 to 2017 were bribes.
“Zarul had asked Ibrahim and I to use fake payment vouchers and invoices to justify making payments to two entities – Sinar Bina Consultancy Services and Bintang Ria Engineering,” Azli said.
He said that besides Sinar Bina and Bintang Ria, “payments” were made to JKM Konsortium Sdn Bhd and Jurutera Konsult Maju Sdn Bhd.
He said both Sinar Bina and Bintang Ria had no business links to Consortium Zenith, and he did not know who the owners of the companies were.
“This was to cover the money trail,” he said.
Lim is standing trial on charges of using his position as then Penang chief minister to ask Zarul for a 10% cut of the profits from the undersea tunnel project and accepting RM3.3 million in kickbacks from the businessman.
He is also accused of two counts of dishonestly misappropriating RM208.7 million worth of state land to two companies.
I never met Guan Eng personally, says witness
Asked by Lim’s lawyer, Gobind Singh Deo, whether he had met Lim before, Azli told the court he had seen Lim at a Hari Raya event.
However, he did not say where and when the event took place.
He also agreed with the defence’s suggestion that he had never met Lim personally after the Hari Raya event.
Gobind: You mentioned in your testimony that Zarul asked you to issue fake invoices so payments can be made?
Azli: Yes, (I did it) under Zarul’s instructions.
Gibind then asked Azli over whether he knew who the ultimate recipient of the payments was.
Azli said he he did not know.
Gobind said forging documents like invoices and payment vouchers was an offence and Azli could be liable for prosecution. “Because you forged documents, that makes you a person who cannot be trusted,” he said.
“I disagree,” Azli replied.
The hearing before judge Azura Alwi continues tomorrow, when deputy public prosecutor Mukhzany Fariz Mohd Mokhtar will call Ibrahim, the other Consortium Zenith director, to testify.
Earlier, the court was told that Zarul, who was scheduled to testify today, could not attend the hearing.
Deputy public prosecutor Wan Shaharuddin Wan Ladin said Zarul had taken medical leave as he is recovering from pancreatic cancer. - FMT
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.