Firm used overdraft to pay Bersatu RM1m in 2022, court hears in Muhyiddin abuse trial

KUALA LUMPUR, April 16 — A company which did not have enough funds in its bank account had taken an overdraft to pay out RM1 million to political party Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia in 2022, a banker told the High Court during Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s power abuse and money laundering trial.

Maybank Kota Kemuning branch’s assistant manager Alfian Othman, 57, confirmed Nepturis Sdn Bhd had taken overdrafts from Maybank in February 2022, including for a RM1 million sum paid to Bersatu.

Alfian explained that an overdraft facility is when a bank customer’s account balance is insufficient, and refers to when the bank has allowed the customer to pay out amounts beyond what is in their account.

In other words, a customer would be borrowing money from the bank to pay out money.

Looking at Nepturis Sdn Bhd’s Maybank February 2022 bank statement, Alfian confirmed that it had a negative account balance during multiple transactions that month, and that one of the biggest sums paid out then was a RM1 million payment to Bersatu’s AmBank account on February 21, 2022 via a Maybank cheque (with cheque number 470023).

Asked by deputy public prosecutor Datuk Wan Shaharuddin Wan Ladin if this RM1 million had entered Bersatu’s account and if “this amount is from the overdraft facility given by the bank”, Alfian replied “yes”.

Earlier, Alfian verified that this RM1 million had indeed entered Bersatu’s AmBank account (account number 8881028867041), based on the latter’s bank statement.

This RM1 million cheque is the exact same cheque that appeared in this trial previously: it is part of 10 cheques totalling RM6 million verified as having entered Bersatu’s AmBank account in 2022, based on AmBank banker Nor Paizah Osman’s court testimony as the third prosecution witness.

Later, when asked by Muhyiddin’s defence lawyer Datuk Amer Hamzah Arshad, Alfian agreed that the RM1 million cheque payment by Nepturis did not refer to Muhyiddin and that the cheque only stated Bersatu as the recipient.

Alfian agreed with Amer that all payments through Nepturis’s bank account are recorded, further agreeing that this meant nothing is hidden and that all transactions would be transparent, and that there is nothing to be hidden about the RM1 million paid to Bersatu.

Earlier today, CIMB Bukit Tunku branch’s assistant manager Herdayanti Md Hasan, as the seventh prosecution witness, verified that the bank branch’s client Azman Yusoff had paid out a total of RM4 million to Bersatu’s CIMB account on two occasions in 2021 and 2022.

Based on both Azman’s CIMB bank statements and Bersatu’s CIMB bank statements, Herdayanti verified that these four cheques from Azman had entered Bersatu’s account:

• RM2 million (cheque number 73659) paid on September 24, 2021;
• RM1 million (cheque number 73660) paid on September 24, 2021;
• RM500,000 (cheque number 73665) paid on November 3, 2022;
• RM500,000 (cheque number 73666) paid on November 3, 2022.

These four cheques paid out by Azman to Bersatu have also already appeared in banking records in Muhyiddin’s trial previously: again, these are the exact same cheques that another CIMB banker, Lee Hui Nee, had previously verified as being received by Bersatu.

Herdayanti agreed with Amer that all payments through cheques are transparent and nothing would be hidden as everything would be captured by the banking system.

Among other things, Herdayanti today agreed with Amer that bank records showed that KCJ Engineering Sdn Bhd had previously transferred RM150,000 in three transactions of RM50,000 to Azman, and agreed that Azman had used KCJ Engineering’s address as the address for his personal CIMB bank account’s statement.

On Monday, Maybank’s Shah Alam main branch’s operations officer Chang Hui Chin confirmed that KCJ Engineering Sdn Bhd — where Azman is one of its three authorised signatories — had paid out RM800,000 via four Maybank Islamic cheques to Bersatu.

Chang, who was the sixth prosecution witness, said the four KCJ Engineering cheques of RM200,000 each dated September 1, 2022 were all paid out to Bersatu on October 12, 2022, with the four cheques signed by the company’s two other signatories Zulhelmi Mairin @ Kunting and Mohd Zaid Yusoff.

These four cheques totalling RM800,000 are also part of the 28 cheques totalling RM19.3 million verified by CIMB banker Lee previously.

In this trial, Muhyiddin is facing seven charges, namely four counts of alleged power abuse to obtain RM225.3m bribes for Bersatu (from Nepturis, Azman, Bukhary Equity Sdn Bhd, and Mamfor Sdn Bhd) and three counts of alleged money laundering through money that Bersatu received from Bukhary Equity.

The trial before High Court judge Noor Ruwena Md Nurdin will resume on April 28.

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• Muhyiddin’s trial: RM6m in 10 cheques entered Bersatu’s AmBank account, banker says