Foreign visa trial: Zahid called ‘Monster’ in Ultra Kirana’s cash payment log, High Court told
SHAH ALAM, June 16 — Ultra Kirana Sdn Bhd (UKSB) had referred to Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi as “Monster”, after the Mamee Monster snack brand, in its ledger for cash payments of hundreds of thousands of ringgit to the former home minister between 2014 and 2018, the High Court heard today.
This was revealed during the examination-in-chief of former UKSB administrative manager David Tan Siong Sun, who is also the prosecution’s 17th witness.
Examined by deputy public prosecutor Datuk Raja Rozela Raja Toran, Tan explained that he had assigned code names to numerous recipients of firm’s financial contributions — in order to conceal their true identities — to various politicians, government staff and Ahmad Zahid himself.
“I wish to clarify, at the time I was eating a Mamee Monster snack when I was making an entry in the ledger for Datuk Seri,” Tan explained, referring to the accused by his honorific title.
Apart from the iconic Malaysian snack, Tan has referred to Ahmad Zahid using other terms, including “Z, ZH, YB, Mon” and “Young Boy” in his ledger.
Tan further affirmed in court that only he alone had knowledge of all the code names he had assigned in the ledger, adding that he was “worried” it would accidentally fall into the wrong hands and subsequently be exposed.
Tan, who is not a trained accountant, also testified that he prepared the ledger using Microsoft Excel on his personal laptop for bookkeeping purposes.
In his witness statement, Tan said his job scope in UKSB was mainly to manage and oversee the company’s day-to-day administration, supervise the administrative staff, and carry out instructions received from its directors.
He was also put in charge by former UKSB director Harry Lee Vui Khiun – who was also the 15th prosecution witness – to ensure sufficient funds were prepared to be delivered to Ahmad Zahid monthly.
“I kept records of all the payments made to Datuk Seri from 2014 to 2018.
“It’s actually for my personal record because the amount of cash involved was huge. The main entries that I have included in the ledger are the amount available for each month, the amount withdrawn, and the name or nickname of the intended receiver.
“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,” Tan said in his witness statement.
According to Tan, the entire ledger was kept in three separate files with back-up copies for each; all of them were password-protected and saved in two different USB flash drives.
According to the facts of the case, UKSB entered into several agreements with the Malaysian government and the Home Ministry for visa facilitation services by operating several One Stop Centres (OSC) in China from 2012 onwards.
Ahmad Zahid is facing 33 charges of receiving bribes amounting to S$13.56 million (RM42 million) from UKSB as an inducement for himself in his capacity as a civil servant and the then home minister to extend the contract of the company as the operator of the OSCs in China and the VLN system as well as to maintain the agreement to supply VLN integrated system paraphernalia to the same company by the Home Ministry.
For another seven counts, Ahmad Zahid was charged as home minister to have obtained for himself S$1.15 million, RM3 million, €15,000 and US$15,000 in cash 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.
