KUALA LUMPUR – Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi reiterated today that he did not ask about the sources of donations to his charitable foundation Yayasan Akalbudi – whether they were illicit funds or meant for political use.
Explaining that it was his practice towards donors and contributors to assume that their actions were well-meant (“bersangka baik”), he said this was also the case with donations purportedly coming from the Albukhary Foundation, the organisation related to businessman Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary.
Giving his testimony in his corruption trial at the high court here today, the Umno president stressed that he had never used any of the donations for personal or political purposes, insisting that the funds were credited directly into the foundation’s bank account.
Zahid also said that contributors donated to Akalbudi as they believed in its mission to feed the poor and provide aid to orphans, besides its other welfare-based initiatives.
“When someone gives you a contribution, firstly you don’t have to ask where the money is from, secondly what amount they donated, what more if the donation is in loose cash.
“That is why I assumed that the donations given in cash, and later changed to cheque form, were well intended,” he said.
He stressed that this was proven when the bank slips, which showed the exact amounts of the donations, were used as evidence in the trial. He said the funds were legally credited into the account belonging to Yayasan Akalbudi and supposedly managed by law firm Lewis & Co.
Zahid had previously testified in court that he had sought the help of moneychanger Omar Ali Abdullah to help bank in cash donations totalling RM7.5 million, allegedly from Yayasan Albukhary, into the account.
The Bagan Datuk MP faces 27 money laundering charges – where he is accused of being directly involved in transactions of illicit funds from March to July 2016 by ordering Omar Ali to convert RM7.5 million in cash into 35 cheques. These were purportedly given to Lewis & Co to open fixed deposit accounts in Maybank.
Zahid has insisted that he had never ordered Omar Ali to convert the cash to cheques, and it was done under the latter’s own initiative.
The Umno man previously denied that the RM7.5 million in funds were from illicit activities, maintaining that it was normal for a foundation to donate to another foundation.
The case in front of judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah continues tomorrow with Zahid taking the stand for further reexamination. – The Vibes, August 29, 2022
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