David Tan, 47, said this during examination-in-chief by lead deputy public prosecutor Raja Rozela Raja Toran when he was questioned on the ledger in Zahid’s corruption trial.
The ledger contains details of payments made by UKSB to several individuals between 2014 and 2018.
When Raja Rozela asked Tan whether he named Zahid in the ledger, the witness replied: “No.”
The 17th prosecution witness explained that he used code names such as “z”, “zh”, “yb”, “young boy”, “mon” and “monster” for Zahid.
“The reason I used the code name ‘monster’ was because during (the time) I wrote in the ledger, I was eating a Mamee Monster snack,” he said.
The 15th prosecution witness, former UKSB director Harry Lee, had earlier told the court that “KJ” and “bomoh” were among words recorded in the UKSB ledger, which was presented in Zahid’s trial.
Tan also said he used code names because he was worried that the ledger might be exposed to other people.
Raja Rozela: Did anyone (else) know about the code names?
Tan: Nobody, only me.
When reading out his witness statement, he said he kept records of all the payments made to Zahid from 2014 to 2018 for his personal record because the amount of cash involved was huge.
“I prepared a ledger using Microsoft Excel on my personal laptop. I’m not an accountant by training, so the ledger was just a simple record of money in, money out,” he said.
He said the main entries in the ledger were the amount available for each month, the amount withdrawn, and the name or nickname of the intended receiver.
“The individuals named in the ledger included ministers, politicians and government servants.
“Usually, I would key in the entries daily, but on some busy days, I would write down on a piece of paper first before keying in the details in the ledger later in the day or the next day,” he said.
Zahid, 69, is facing 33 charges of receiving bribes amounting to S$13.56 million from UKSB for himself as then home minister to extend the contract of the company as the operator of the One-Stop Centre in China and the foreign visa (VLN) system as well as to maintain the contract agreement to supply the VLN integrated system to the same company by the ministry.
For another seven counts, he is charged with obtaining for himself S$1.15 million, RM3 million, €15,000 and US$15,000 from the same company in connection with his official work.
He is charged with committing all the offences at Seri Satria, Presint 16, Putrajaya, and Country Heights, Kajang, between October 2014 and March 2018.
The hearing before judge Yazid Mustafa continues.