Kota Kinabalu: A Kudat businessman told the Special Corruption Court that he lent former Sabah Railway Department chief engineer Ismail Ahmad RM300,000 between 2013 and 2016, with the loan later fully settled through rental payments being offset against the amount owed.
Fourth defence witness Mailis Sungian, 56, a scrap-metal businessman and operator of a resort in Kudat, who testified before Judge Andi Razalijaya A.Dadi, stated this in his witness statement on Monday.
Mailis said he had known Ismail for about 30 years, initially through Ismail’s sugarcane juice business in Tanjung Aru.
Mailis said he later managed and collected rental payments for several houses owned by Ismail, as well as properties belonging to Ismail’s first and second wives and his mother.
He said the properties included houses in Austral Park, Kendara Apartment 2, Putrajaya Apartment, Taman Kemajuan, Taman Sepanggar and Hartamas Height.
He said he also managed four houses in Putatan belonging to Ismail’s first wife and a house in Eden Height, Penampang, belonging to Ismail’s mother.
According to Mailis, the rental rates in 2016 ranged from RM450 to RM1,500 a month, depending on the property.
He said all rental payments were collected in cash, with no tenancy agreements or receipts issued to the tenants.
Mailis said he would collect the rents before handing the money to Ismail each month, and received a 10 per cent commission for the houses he managed.
He said he had also rented several parcels of land belonging to Ismail, his two wives and Ismail’s father for oil-palm cultivation.
Mailis said he paid the rents in cash until 2018, after which the rental payments were set off against the RM300,000 personal loan he had given Ismail.
He said the loan agreement, signed on Aug 30, 2011, involved Ismail and his second wife Runtiah Rais, but the money was only disbursed from 2013 after Ismail began requesting it.
Mailis said he handed over RM80,000 in 2013, RM70,000 in 2014, RM50,000 in 2015 and RM100,000 in 2016, all in cash.
He said the money was intended by Ismail for investment, including property purchases, and that Ismail had also been involved in prawn farming at the time.
Mailis said he agreed to the loan after Ismail offered a house as security and promised repayment of RM350,000.
He said he trusted Ismail because they had known each other for many years and he knew Ismail owned several rental properties and received rental income.
Mailis said the RM300,000 loan was fully settled in 2019 through the set-off of rental payments from the oil-palm land he had rented.
He said he no longer had the records of the individual cash payments because they had been made several years earlier.
Mailis told the court the names of some of the tenants who rented the houses, although there were no tenancy agreements for the properties.
He said that about 10 years ago, the practice was different from today, as tenants could move into a house after paying a deposit without signing a formal tenancy agreement.
To a question by the accused’s counsel, Mailis told the court the names of some of the tenants who had rented the houses.
Asked why the court should believe his evidence that the houses had been rented out despite there being no tenancy agreements, Mailis said the practice about 10 years ago was different from today, when tenancy agreements were commonly used.
He said tenants then could simply pay a deposit and move straight into the house.
Ismail is jointly charged with his first wife, Muhilim @ Masniah Buaya @ Buayie, over RM275,550 allegedly derived from unlawful activities between March and September 2016 at the HSBC Bank branch here, and with his second wife, Runtiah, over RM133,300 allegedly derived from unlawful activities between February and September 2016 at the OCBC Bank branch here.
Runtiah also faces five separate money laundering charges involving a total of RM30,000 allegedly derived from unlawful activities.
Each charge is framed under Section 4(1)(b) of the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001 provide for a jail term of up to 15 years and a fine of not less than five times the amount of the proceeds from the ill-gotten gains, or RM5 million, whichever is higher, on conviction.
The three accused were represented by counsel Zahir Hussien Ahmad Shah, Datuk Rizwandean M Borhan and Elhanan James.
Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Deputy Public Prosecutors Haresh Prakash Somiah, Nurul Izzati Sapifee and Shafiq Mahadi for the prosecution.
The trial continues.
