The former deputy prime minister also told the High Court here he had no personal knowledge that the funds, which were mostly in cheques, were placed in the account.

“I categorically deny that I gave instructions to Messrs Lewis & Co or any lawyer or staff, including V Sothilechmy, to deposit the funds in the fixed deposit account,” he said when reading his witness statement.

Sothilechmy was an accountant with the law firm.

He said lawyer B Muralidharan, a partner with the firm, was the one who deposited the money into the fixed deposit account.

Both Sothilechmy and Muralidharan were prosecution witnesses in the trial.

“I can also verify that Sothilechmy had testified in this court that she received instruction from Muralidharan to place the money in the account,” he said.

Zahid is standing trial on 47 charges of money laundering and criminal breach of trust (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.

To a question by lawyer Ahmad Zaidi Zainal, Zahid said he had never met nor contacted Sothilechmy.

As chairman of Yayasan Akalbudi, he said, he had appointed Messrs Lewis & Co to manage the foundation’s funds.

“Muralidharan had told me he will manage the foundation’s funds by opening a fixed deposit account so that the foundation could accrue interest,” he said.

He said Muralidhran informed him that he had to do this as required under the law.

Zahid said the cheques were donations or contributions from individuals and corporate organisations for the foundation to undertake charitable activities.

He said the funds were not proceeds of unlawful activities as defined under the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act (Amla) 2001.

During the proceedings this morning, Zahid denied committing 13 of the money laundering charges and will continue his testimony after the lunch break.

In the prosecution’s opening statement on Nov 18, 2019, Zahid was accused of receiving RM65 million in the form of cheques from individuals known and unknown to him.

The cheques were delivered to Muralidharan who, in turn, deposited the cheques into the firm’s client account.

A substantial portion of the money was then used to make placement for fixed deposits under the firm’s name.

The trial is being heard by judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah.