Deputy public prosecutor (DPP) Gan Peng Kun said the court should look at the evidence and circumstances around the RM6 million in totality, and should not take the testimonies of former Datasonic Group Bhd’s directors Chew Ben Ben and Abu Hanifah Noordin at “face value”.
Chew and Hanifah had testified that the RM6 million was meant as a political donation to Barisan Nasional (BN) for the 2018 general election.
“If the RM6 million was meant as a political donation, why was it paid to the home minister who was ‘instrumental’ in awarding the passport chip project to Datasonic?
“The facts of our case show that the RM6 million, in two cheques, were deposited into law firm Lewis & Co, that has nothing to do with BN.
“Why was the money not paid into BN’s account?” Gan said in his closing submissions at the end of the prosecution’s case.
Zahid is standing trial on 47 charges of money laundering and CBT involving millions from Yayasan Akalbudi and accepting bribes for various projects during his tenure as the home minister.
Twelve of the charges are for CBT, eight for corruption and the remaining 27 for money laundering. Lewis & Co was implicated in Zahid’s court case.
The passport chip contract, said to be through direct negotiation, and reportedly worth RM318.75 million, was awarded to Datasonic Technologies Sdn Bhd in 2016.
The same company also obtained a government contract to supply Malaysian passports until 2021.
Gan pointed out Chew told the court that he passed the RM6 million “donation” to Zahid sometime in 2017 at Seri Satria, Putrajaya.
“They purportedly made a ‘donation’ and gave the money to the then DPM (Zahid) at his official residence, not any back alley.
“But they did not call the media for coverage to announce that they had contributed to BN,” he said.
Meanwhile, on Zahid’s RM13 million corruption charges, the prosecution again questioned why the money was deposited into Lewis & Co’s account, and not directly to Yayasan Al-Falah, which belongs to Zahid’s brother, Mohamad Nasaee.
“Lewis & Co’s Muralidharan Balan Pillai confirmed in court that he received instructions from the accused (Zahid) to deposit the funds (cheques from Mastoro Kenny IT Consultant & Services) into fixed deposit accounts for Al-Falah.
“This is what money laundering looks like,” Gan said.
The court previously heard that businessman Junaith Asharab Md Shariff contributed RM13 million to Nasaee’s Yayasan Al-Falah, to build mosques and tahfiz schools in Bagan Datuk.
On the remaining RM2 million corruption charges, the DPP affirmed that the money paid by Profound Radiance Sdn Bhd director Azlan Shah Jaffril was meant as an inducement to appoint the company to operate the One Stop Centre (OSC) to process work permits for Pakistani and Nepali workers.
Although Azlan denied in court that the RM2 million was a kickback for the OSC project, Gan told the court that it was “merely the opinion of an interested witness”.
“It is up to the court to decide if Azlan or other witnesses’ testimonies are true or otherwise.
“The defence submitted that he (Zahid) never demanded money from Azlan. If that was the case, why did he not return the cheques to Azlan but deposited the money into Lewis & Co (instead)?
“Thus, he must be called to enter his defence and explain these charges,” he said.
The hearing before High Court judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah continues tomorrow.