The Malaysian Insight

AHMAD Zahid Hamidi used his charity foundations Yayasan Akalbudi and Yayasan Al-Falah as fronts for his money laundering schemes, the prosecution in the Umno president’s trial said today.

The so-called philanthropists who had secretly donated huge sums of money to Yayasan Akalbudi were “lobbyists and opportunists”, deputy public prosecutor Harris Ong Mohd Jeffery Ong submitted at Kuala Lumpur High Court.

“The accused formulated a corrupt plan to gain monies using his position and influence, camouflaged under the names of the foundations for charity purposes.

“The accused could have instructed all donors to name either of the foundations as the payee of all those cheques.

“Both foundations shared a common business and actively participated in so-called charity,” Ong said at the prosecution’s closing submissions.

Ong said evidence in the trial showed that the discussions between Zahid, who is a former deputy prime minister and former home minister, and the donors were done “in private and behind closed doors”.

“Throughout the trial, witnesses testified that they donated large sums of money to the accused without any proof of receipts or supporting documents to show the money was indeed donations.

“There is no transparency in the discussions. No records or applications for tax exemptions were made. Everything was done surreptitiously for the purpose known only to them.

“Furthermore, all said donations finally ended up in Lewis & Co’s (trustee of Yayasan Akalbudi) account and not the proper charity fund,” Ong said.

Yesterday, the prosecution said that Zahid had used his relationship with lawyer Muralidharan Balan Pillai, partner of Messrs. Lewis & Co., and moneychanger Omar Ali Abdullah to operate a money laundering scheme.

“By profession, Muralidharan was acting pro bono for the accused under the guise of doing charity work. Everything done by Muralidharan for the accused is legitimate and appears to be legal,” Ong said today.

“If it is true that the money was for charity purpose, the decisive question would be why was the cash converted into cheques and finally ended up in Lewis & Co. client’s account, rather than directly into the Yayasan Akalbudi account?”

Zahid was charged with 27 counts of money laundering, where the Bagan Datuk MP had been allegedly involved in transactions of millions of ringgit in “donations” given to Lewis & Co, trustee of Yayasan Akalbudi, to be placed into fixed deposits for personal gain.

Zahid is also facing 12 counts of criminal breach of trust and eight counts of bribery involving tens of millions of ringgit in funds belonging to his charity foundation Yayasan Akalbudi.

The hearing continues on Monday before high court judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah. – October 6, 2021.