Court told Zahid asked money changer to convert tranches of cash into cheques
The Kuala Lumpur High Court today heard that former deputy prime minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi had approached a money changer to help convert tranches of cash into cheques which were then deposited into the account of Yayasan Akalbudi, a charitable foundation which he founded.
Omar Ali, who was the money changer involved, testified that Zahid made the request during a meeting in 2014 and handed him the bank account number of Yayasan Akalbudi.
The Kuala Lumpur High Court today heard that former deputy prime minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi had approached a money changer to help convert tranches of cash into cheques which were then deposited into the account of Yayasan Akalbudi, a charitable foundation which he founded.
Omar Ali, who was the money changer involved, testified that Zahid made the request during a meeting in 2014 and handed him the bank account number of Yayasan Akalbudi.
"The accused (Zahid) told me that the contributor will contact me to pass cash to me.
"The accused asked that I take the cash from the contributor and convert them into cheques to be deposited into Yayasan Akalbudi's account.
"The accused also told me that all the contributors who will be contacting me are from Yayasan Akalbudi," he said.
Omar was the 81st prosecution witness during the 27th day of Zahid's graft, money laundering and criminal breach of trust trial.
Omar said around a week after his meeting with Zahid, he was contacted by an unknown man who handed him over the money in a piece of baggage on the ground floor of Plaza Fahrenheit in Kuala Lumpur.
"I had asked the man to come up to my office, but he refused and asked that I come down to the ground floor of Plaza Fahrenheit. I then went down to meet the man.
"I did not notice how many people were present but only one person handed me the money. The man gave me the money in a luggage. We did not chat or ask any questions.
"After taking the bag, I immediately got into my car and went home. At home, I opened the bag and counted the money I received.
"I don't remember the exact sum for the first time, but I recall it may be in the area of half a million," Omar told the court from his witness statement.
Omar, who was examined by deputy public prosecutor Harris Ong Mohd Jeffrey Ong, said there were more such subsequent handovers, again at the ground floor of Plaza Fahrenheit and also at the JW Marriot Hotel lobby and Grand Millenium Hotel lobby in Kuala Lumpur.
He said the men responsible for the handover were never the same each time.
Omar said once he received the money, he would ask his contacts if they needed cash in exchange for cheques to be made out to Yayasan Akalbudi.
He said the process would take between one to two weeks for every exchange.
He added that as soon as he received the cheque, he would bank them into Yayasan Akalbudi's account and keep a receipt of the transaction which he would later hand over to Zahid at his home.
However, beginning 2016, Omar said Zahid instructed that the cash handed to him should be converted into cheques and deposited to the bank account of Messrs Lewis & Co Lewis & Co, a law firm acting a trustee for Yayasan Akalbudi.
Zahid is facing 47 charges, comprising 12 charges of criminal breach of trust, 27 charges of money laundering and eight charges of bribery.
The witness' testimony today is for the 27th charge of money laundering in which Zahid is accused of being involved in the laundering of illegal proceeds between March 29, 2016, to July 15, 2016.
Omar said he converted a total of RM8,975,250 received from the unknown men into 35 cheques to be given to Messrs Lewis & Co.
Previous witnesses had testified they handed cheques to Omar in exchange for cash whereby the recipient of the cheques was left blank for Omar to fill.
The trial is being presided over by High Court judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah.
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