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KUALA LUMPUR – Then Penang chief minister Lim Guan Eng received “chocolate” – a euphemism for cash – from Consortium Zenith Beijing Urban Construction Group Sdn Bhd (CZBUCG) director Datuk Zarul Ahmad Mohd Zulkifli, it was alleged today.
Zarul said businessman Gnanaraja Gnanasundram acted as a “middleman” when on August 17, 2017, he wanted to give Lim RM2 million in cash.
“I told Gnanaraja via WhatsApp I want to hand over ‘chocolate’ to him to be given to ‘big boss’...chocolate here means cash,” he was quoted as saying by Malaysiakini in his testimony at the sessions court here today.
The court heard that the cash was put in two sports bags and placed in Gnanaraja’s luxury car at Eastin Hotel, Petaling Jaya, on August 18.
Zarul said two days later that he and Gnanaraja took one bag and picked Lim up at Wentworth Hotel here before dropping him off at a mall.
He added that before Lim exited the car, he patted his shoulder as a thank you gesture and was sure that Lim took the bag filled with cash..
He then said the second bag was given to Lim by Gnanaraja on August 28.
Meanwhile, Zarul said he was introduced to Gnanaraja by Padang Rengas MP Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz and that the businessman was a “close associate” of former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.
Zarul told the court that this could improve his relationship with the then prime minister so the federal government would not “disturb” the undersea tunnel project.
He added that Lim was the one who suggested Zarul find a middleman to deliver cash payments as the director had made personal deliveries between 2013 and 2016.
The trial resumes on Monday.
In 2019, Gnanaraja was charged with three counts of cheating involving RM19 million related to the Penang undersea tunnel project.
He was also slapped with 68 money-laundering charges involving RM11.4 million in the same year, and lost his “Datuk Seri” title.
Lim is facing an amended charge of using his position as Penang chief minister at that time to receive a bribe of RM3.3 million for helping the company owned by Zarul to obtain a construction project worth RM6,341,383,702. The offence was allegedly committed at the Penang chief minister’s office, 28th floor, Komtar, George Town between January 2011 and August 2017.
For the second amended charge, he is alleged to have solicited from Zarul 10% of the profit to be gained by the company in exchange for the firm obtaining the project. Lim is accused of committing this offence near The Gardens Hotel, Lingkaran Syed Putra, Mid Valley City, here, in March 2011.
Lim is also facing two other charges of causing two plots of land worth RM208.8 million belonging to the Penang government to be disposed of to two companies claimed to be linked to the undersea tunnel project.
He is charged with committing the offences at the Penang Land and Mines Department, 21st floor, Komtar on February 17, 2015 and March 22, 2017. – The Vibes, June 24, 2022
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