AHMAD Zahid Hamidi was fully aware he was using his charity foundation Yayasan Akalbudi’s cheques to pay for his personal credit card bills, the Kuala Lumpur High Court heard today.

Deputy public prosecutor Raja Rozela Raja Toran said the former deputy prime minister had also given his former executive secretary Mazlina Mazlan @ Ramly the permission to do so.

“The defence would have us believe that the accused was totally oblivious about the use of the Akalbudi cheques (for his credit card payment), and in turn, blamed the secretary.

“It is our contention that the accused must take responsibility for the acts of Mazlina,” Raja Rozela told judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah.

Mazlina, the 90th prosecution witness in the trial, said that Zahid had never questioned her on the use of Akalbudi cheques nor asked her to use his personal cheques for his credit card payments.

She also told the court she was authorised to use the signature stamp on Akalbudi cheques to pay for Zahid’s credit card bills whenever he was away from the office or occupied.

“The said signature stamp was given to Mazlina by her predecessor. During the handing-over process, Mazlina received cheque books belonging to Akalbudi (Affin Bank) and the accused (Maybank). She had kept all these items in her office,” Raja Rozela said.

Zahid, 68, is facing 47 charges – 27 for money laundering, 12 for criminal breach of trust and eight for corruption – involving tens of millions of ringgit belonging to Yayasan Akalbudi.

Of the 12 CBT charges, six of them were in relation to payments of credit cards involving 44 cheques.

The defence earlier argued that the charges had no prima facie case because 32 cheques were stamped by Mazlina and that only she “held the keys to the drawer where the cheques were kept”.

“To insist that the accused could not have any access to these cheques is just a mere excuse. I mean, the accused was her superior, he was her boss.

“All he had to do was to ask Mazlina to open up the drawers and show him, bring him the cheque books, credit card statements for him to check,” Raja Rozela said.

She added that Mazlina had also said that the signature stamp was used only for the credit card payments and was never misused by her for personal benefit.

More so, Mazlina had testified that Zahid conducted spot checks on Yayasan Akalbudi’s bank statements and cheque books once or twice a year, Raja Rozela said.

Mazlina had served Zahid for close to seven years, starting at the Ministry of Defence, and onwards at the Ministry of Home Affairs and the deputy prime minister’s office.

Her assignment ended abruptly after Zahid was forced to relinquish his ministerial post following the collapse of the Barisan Nasional administration in May 2018.

“At all material times, Mazlina was responsible for the preparation of the relevant Akalbudi cheques.

“Each month, credit card statements from the respective card issuers (AmIslamic Bank and Maybank) were sent to the accused’s office.

“Mazlina would then prepare a cheque and submit it together with the card statement to the accused for his approval,” Raja Rozela said.

The prosecutor said Zahid, being a senior ex-banker, could have also easily identified the different colours in distinguishing between his Maybank personal cheque book and Yayasan Akalbudi’s Affin Bank cheque book. – October 14, 2021.