KUALA Lumpur High Court today heard that Ahmad Zahid Hamidi charged RM40,000 to his credit cards during trips to Seoul and Kiev from 2014 to 2015, during his tenure as deputy prime minister.

Maybank vice president Anoop Singh Gulzara Singh told Zahid’s corruption trial today that the Umno president had two credit cards and one charge card with the bank: a Visa platinum, a Mastercard gold and an American Express platinum card.

He went on to detail that on May 26, 2015, the Amex card was charged at two retail outlets and a supermarket in Seoul for RM30,600.

There was also an additional charge for another retail transaction for RM1,810 in the same country.

Anoop Singh, who was the ninth prosecution witness, was called to testify on all the credit card transactions that Zahid had made from 2014 to 2015.

He also told the court that Zahid had made a few retail transactions in Kiev totalling RM7,600.

However, the witness did not elaborate on the nature of the transactions.

The proceedings were before judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah, with Raja Rozela Raja Toran and deputy public prosecutor Lee Seng Fatt prosecuting.

The transactions in Kyiv were made about the time Zahid and the then Inspector General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar had gone to Ukraine to carry out further investigations into the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17.

Meanwhile, eighth prosecution witness Muhammad Nabil Saleh testified that Zahid had asked him on 2012 to become a member of Yayasan Akalbudi’s Board of Trustees.

Nabil also said, as a trustee, he was never consulted on any donations, expenditure, statement of accounts or any activities of the foundation since he signed on in 2012.

“These matters have been decided and personally managed by Zahid and were beyond my knowledge,” he said.

During the witness’s cross-examination by lawyer Ahmad Zaidi Zainal as Zahid’s defence counsel, he had asked Nabil if he had any knowledge of Zahid using funds to pay for Malaysian rescue officials during the MH17 incident.

“Do you have any knowledge that Zahid had used funds to pay for all the Malaysian rescue officials’ food, lodging, allowances and others during that period?

“No, I did not have any knowledge of this,” Nabil said.

Nabil, who served as Zahid’s special assistant for the Bagan Datuk constituency from 2013 to 2015, admitted that some of the Yayasan Akalbudi funds were used for the building of mosques, orphanages and a tahfiz school in Seberang Prai, Penang.

Zahid is charged with 12 counts of criminal breach of trust, eight counts of corruption and 27 counts of money-laundering, involving RM117 million.

According to the charge sheet, Zahid is accused of using money from the foundation to pay off his credit card debts.

The trial continues on Monday. – November 21, 2019.