National Feedlot Corporation (NFC) chairperson Mohamad Salleh Ismail has disclosed that he invests in property “all the time”, whenever there is cash to spare.

This is why, he told the Kuala Lumpur High Court, that a defendant lawyer's assertion yesterday that NFC is his only source of income is incorrect.

“I invest in property whenever I can since I got back. That's how I got additional income,” he said during his cross-examination today.

Salleh was responding to a query from Pandan MP Mohd Rafizi Ramli's lawyer Razlan Hadri Zulkifli, who asked why he and his son Wan Shahinur Izran Salleh sought a loan to purchase properties at KL Eco City under their own names, rather than under NFC.

He quipped in immediate response to Razlan's question, “If I buy under NFCorp's name, your client would have a bigger story to sell.”

Salleh had previously declined to disclose what other sources of income he has apart from NFC during yesterday's cross-examination.

Today when asked whether he bought more properties since NFC obtained the government loan than before, Salleh countered that it is a non-issue because he buys properties all the time.

To a follow-up question on how many properties he has bought and sold since getting the loan, Salleh declined to answer.

Salleh and NFC are suing Rafizi and the online news portal Malaysiakini over a statement Rafizi made on March 7, 2012, which Malaysiakini published on the same day.

Rafizi had alleged that Salleh had used a RM250 million soft loan from the government as leverage to purchase eight commercial properties at KL Eco City. The loan was intended for the National Feedlot Centre project.

Salleh contends that a bank loan meant for the property purchase never existed, contrary to Rafizi's allegations.

He told the court yesterday that even if there is such a bank loan, he and his son would be able to pay off the loan on their own without using the government soft loan.

He also disclosed yesterday that four of the eight properties are meant to be used as NFC's office, while the remainder would be sold.

Under constant attacks

Meanwhile, Razlan grilled Salleh on whether the loan offer from Public Bank to purchase the KL Eco City properties had lapsed, or was withdrawn because of Rafizi's allegations.

Salleh said the offer from Public Bank was withdrawn, and he was not informed that it was due to Rafizi's attacks.

However, he said if a bank were to withdraw a loan offer due to a client's bad publicity, the bank would not cite it as the reason for the withdrawal.

“ If I were the banker, and my borrower is getting attacked and slandered all the way, I would proceed the same way,” he said.

He added that although he had received and acknowledged the offer letter months before, it was withdrawn in January 2012.

However, he said he did not have the time to “activate” the offer because he was under constant attacks from Rafizi and his supporters over the NFC scandal.

“ Your client was making police reports all over the place, and I kept being called by the police all the time,” he said.

The hearing and Salleh's cross-examination before judicial commissioner Azizul Azmi Adnan will continue in May next year.