THE signatures on six cheques to settle payments on Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s credit cards and charge card were stamped on, the Kuala Lumpur High Court heard today.

The matter came up when the former deputy prime minister’s lead lawyer, Hisyam Teh Poh Teik, was cross-examining Anoop Singh Gulzara Singh, who is Maybank vice-president in charge of credit card fraud and dispute management.

The 46-year-old witness said a report signed by Siti Nur Musliha Mohamad Noor of the Chemistry Department states that the signatures on the cheques were produced using a stamp.

Because the signatures “are not handwritten”, said the report, Siti Nur Musliha was unable to form an opinion on their “authorship”.

Anoop Singh, the ninth prosecution witness, was testifying on the fifth day of Zahid’s Yayasan Akalbudi trial, in which the 66-year-old Umno president faces 47 charges involving millions of ringgit belonging to the foundation.

To Hisyam’s suggestion that his client did not stamp the six cheques as a cardholder, Anoop Singh said he does not know.

Hisyam: I put it to you that at the time the six cheques were stamped, Zahid had no knowledge they were stamped by his personal assistant, Major Mazlina Mazlan.

Anoop Singh: I do not know.

Zahid has pleaded not guilty to 12 counts of criminal breach of trust, eight counts of bribery and 27 counts of money-laundering.

The trial before judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah continues tomorrow. – Bernama, December 2, 2019.