No record of payments from company to Hishammuddin, Zahid graft trial told

A Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) investigating officer told the Shah Alam High Court yesterday that there was no record of payments made by Ultra Kirana Sdn Bhd (UKSB) to Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein.

V Mahendran, 38, said this was based on the statements taken from prosecution witnesses and checks carried out of the company’s ledger, prepared by its former administrative manager David Tan Siong Sun.

He said this during examination-in-chief by deputy public prosecutor Zander Lim Wai Keong at the trial of former deputy prime minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi over the foreign visa system (VLN) project.

Lim: Who were the witnesses?

Mahendran: Tan, Harry Lee (former director of UKSB Harry Lee Vui Khiun) and Wan Quoris (former director of UKSB Wan Quoris Shah Wan Abdul Ghani).

Lim: Based on the ledger, was Hishammuddin’s name written there?

Mahendran: No.

Zahid, 69, faces 33 charges of receiving bribes amounting to S$13.56 million from UKSB for himself as home minister to extend the contract of the company as the operator of the OSC service in China and the VLN system, as well as to maintain the contract agreement to supply the VLN integrated system to the same company by the home ministry.

On another seven counts, he is charged with obtaining for himself S$1,150,000, RM3 million, 15,000 euros and US$15,000 from the same company which had official links with his official duty.

He was charged with committing the offences at Seri Satria, Precinct 16, Putrajaya, and Country Heights Kajang between October 2014 and March 2018. 

The trial before judge Mohd Yazid Mustafa continues today.