Observers at the Eric Chia criminal breach of trust trial today were startled when a government chemist claimed that the signature on a letter from a Japanese firm demanding a payment of RM76.4 million from Perwaja Rolling Mills and Development was a forgery.

Government chemist Wong Kong Yong told a rapt Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court that he had discovered that the signature of NKK Corporation managing director N Otami - on the letter dated Feb 17, 1994 - was not the same as that of an authentic specimen given by him.

The allegedly forged signature on the demand letter was also different from those on three other letters signed by Otami to Perwaja Rolling Mills.

"I found that the signature on the letter (dated Feb 17) was not produced by the same person who gave the specimen of signature," said the handwriting expert

Wong was testifying at the trial of Chia who is charged with making an unauthorised payment of RM76.4 million to NKK on Feb 22, 1994 via the accounts of Frilsham Enterprises Incorporated.

Chia also faces an alternative charge of illegally entering into an agreement with NKK to dispose the RM76.4 million without the approval from Perwaja's board of directors.

He is charged under section 409 of the Penal Code which carries the maximum penalty of 20 years jail.

Pen lifted at 'a'

Chia is represented by Muhammad Shafee Abdullah while the three-man prosecution team is led by Senior Deputy Public Prosecutor Mohd Yusof Zainal Abiden.

Elaborating on the alleged forgery, Wong told the court that he spotted 13 differences between it and the specimen given by Otami.

Among the differences was the purportedly forged signature's structure, number of diacritics, initial and sequence of stroke, pressure, pen lift, shading, size and line quality.

He said the structure of the signature was different even to the naked eye as it started from a base lower than the authentic signature supplied.

He added the contentious signature appeared to have come from a hand that was 'shaking' while the specimen was smoother.

"That signature's pen lift was also different from the others (genuine ones) where the former showed that the writer had lifted his pen at the letter 'a' before finishing the signature while the latter was a continuous motion."

The court later heard testimonies from seven Bank Bumiputera (Malaysia) Berhad officers regarding the payment of RM76.4 million remitted into Frilsham's account at American Express Limited in Hong Kong.

Yen remittance

One of the witnesses, ex-remittence officer Adnan Abu Bakar, said that on Feb 22, 1994, his superior gave him an instruction letter from Perwaja Rolling Mills to remit Yen 2.9 billion (then worth RM76.4 million) into Frilsham's account.

"Based on the instruction letter, the payment was for a beam and section mill project under phase one, two and three. It was signed by Lawrence Lim and Eric Chia.

"After doing as instructed, I submitted the letter to the officer responsible for Perwaja's account," he said.

Hearing before judge Akhtar Tahir continues tomorrow.