KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi told the High Court here today that he had never instructed anyone to use Yayasan Akalbudi (YAB) funds for his personal matters.
According to Ahmad Zahid, 69, he was the one footing the bill for all YAB expenses since its establishment in 1997.
“In the early stages of its establishment (of the foundation), most of the funds of the YAB were from my contributions, my salary and savings including profits from the purchase and sale of shares for being active in the corporate world.
“This is to ensure that Yayasan Akalbudi can carry out charity programmes and provide assistance as well as contributions to individuals or parties in need and also in the construction of mosques, maahad and so on,” said Ahmad Zahid, who is one of the trustees of YAB from 1997 until now.
He said this when reading his witness statement on the first day of the defence proceedings on 47 criminal breach of trust (CBT), corruption and money laundering charges involving YAB funds.
Ahmad Zahid said after the YAB’s charitable work became known to outsiders in 2013, it began to receive donations from colleagues such as Gen Tan Sri Mohamed Hashim Ali (29th prosecution witness), Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Al- Bukhary, Tan Sri Halim Saad and Tan Sri Ahmad Johan.
“For this purpose, I would like to stress that Yayasan Akalbudi never asks for but only promotes to any individual or company that they can contribute funds to Yayasan Akalbudi.
“Yayasan Akalbudi has never prevented any party from contributing to the foundation,” said Ahmad Zahid during the examination-in-chief by his lawyer, Datuk Ahmad Zaidi Zainal.
Ahmad Zahid said the idea to establish YAB was mooted by him while serving in the corporate world and being the chairman of Bank Simpanan Nasional (1994-1998) and chief executive officer of Kretam Holding Berhad (1994-1998), Tekala Corporation Berhad (1995-1998), Ramatex Berhad (1995-1999) and Seng Hup Berhad (1996-1998).
“I also state here that Yayasan Akalbudi is an ‘amanah’ (trust) to me, by my parents, and that is something I hold until today, “ he said.
The Member of Parliament for Bagan Datuk said the objective of establishing the foundation was to implement charitable activities for religious purposes and to help those in need, and not just focus on his parliamentary constituency only.
“At that time, I earned about RM120,000 a month and I only used between RM30,000 and RM40,000 for my family and myself while the rest I used for waqf, infaq and charitable activities and religious purposes.
He added that the foundation was first named Yayasan Budi, but later changed to Yayasan Akalbudi to give it a wider meaning encompassing intellectual, research and academic purposes apart from just charitable activities.
Ahmad Zahid also confirmed that since the establishment of Yayasan Akalbudi, all the trustees of the foundation have never objected to the funds being channelled for the purpose of building mosques or maahad, orphanages, surau and so on.
Apart from that, Ahmad Zahid, a former deputy prime minister, said his income was about RM50,000 a month while serving in the government, and his current savings were around RM2 million in an account at the Bank Islam KL Sentral branch.
“As a politician and cabinet minister, I was not allowed to be involved in the corporate world, and I was not involved as a director in a corporate company while holding positions in the government, but could still hold listed or unlisted shares,” he said in the proceedings before Judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah.
“However, the shares were held by nominee companies that I have appointed, on my behalf,” he said, having held the post of deputy prime minister from July 29, 2015, to May 9, 2018.
Ahmad Zahid faces 47 charges, with 12 of them involving CBT, eight counts of graft charges and 27 for money laundering involving tens of millions of ringgit belonging to the YAB, which is owned by Ahmad Zahid.
On Jan 24, the court ordered Ahmad Zahid to enter his defence against all charges after the prosecution had succeeded in proving a prima facie case. — Bernama
