YAYASAN Akalbudi was set up to protect Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s interests, a witness in the former deputy prime minister’s trial told the court today.

Mohd Samsuri Tun, a former board member of Yayasan Budi, which later became known as Yayasan Akalbudi, said Zahid suggested in 1996 that the foundation be established.

The fourth prosecution witness in the trial at the Kuala Lumpur High Court testified that the Bagan Datuk MP proposed that the foundation be set up to safeguard the interests and welfare of his Umno division.

Zahid has been charged with 12 counts of criminal breach of trust, eight counts of corruption and 27 counts of money-laundering, involving a total of RM117.25 million. He is accused of embezzling RM31 million from Yayasan Akalbudi.

Yesterday, the court heard that the foundation’s objective, according to its memorandum and articles of association, is to receive and administer funds to help the poor.

“My task was to collect funds for charitable work in Bagan Datuk, and for whatever Zahid needed,” said Samsuri today.

On how the foundation was run, he said there were only three members on the board of trustees.

“Initially, the board comprised Zahid, Dr Zulkifli Senteri and myself. We also had a company secretary named Idris Kechik. We did not have an office at the time.”

Samsuri said during his tenure, he signed several blank cheques as he was one of the authorised signatories for Yayasan Akalbudi’s bank account.

“I only signed (blank) cheques when I was told to by Zahid. I was not told what those cheques were used for.”

He said his name is still registered with the Companies Commission of Malaysia (CCM) as a foundation trustee despite him quitting the board on April 4, 2012.

“I don’t know why I am still listed as a board member, because I was instructed by Zahid to step down in 2012.”

Earlier, CCM executive Salma Hanum testified that since its formation in 1997, Yayasan Akalbudi has never filed annual financial statements and reports.

The foundation is no longer in the commission’s CBS-ROC system because of its failure to comply with CCM’s terms and conditions, she said.

Affin Bank branch manager Massayu Mohd Ariffin, the third witness, was brought in to confirm that she had signed a cheque for RM17,953,185.21 from Yayasan Akalbudi to Messrs Lewis & Co, a trustee of the foundation.

She said Zahid had applied to be named as the sole signatory for Yayasan Akalbudi.

Fifth witness Nor Aidah Abdul Hamid, an Affin Bank employee working under Massayu, confirmed that the signatories for Yayasan Akalbudi’s account were changed on June 20, 2013.

The trial resumes tomorrow before judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah. – November 19, 2019.