UKSB payment ledger mentions 'KJ' and 'bomoh', Ahmad Zahid graft trial told

SHAH ALAM: "KJ" and "bomoh" were among the entries in a ledger owned by Ultra Kirana Sdn Bhd (UKSB) submitted as evidence in the corruption trial of former deputy prime minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, the High Court here heard.

Former UKSB director VK Lee said this during cross-examination by Datuk Ahmad Zaidi Zainal, representing Ahmad Zahid, when the ledger was referred to him on Friday (May 20).

The ledger reportedly contains details of payments made by the company to several individuals between 2014 and 2018.

Asked if he (Lee) could confirm that the initials "KJ" referred to Khairy Jamaluddin, the witness replied: "That, I am not sure.”

Ahmad Zaidi: I presume you know that Wan Quoris (UKSB director Wan Quoris Shah Wan Abdul Ghani) used to work with KJ before?

Lee: (Whether) he worked with KJ before, I'm not so sure. But I know apparently, he (Wan Quoris Shah) said he knows KJ very well.

In earlier proceedings, Lee said in his witness statement that Wan Quoris Shah was brought in as a director of UKSB in May 2013 as he was an Umno member and the company needed his clout to help it communicate with Ahmad Zahid, who was home minister at that time.

The witness also had no answer when asked about payments made to an individual listed as "bomoh" in the ledger.

Among the other jottings in the ledger were KPU, FM, SUB and AK, which the lawyer had suggested to mean "ketua pengarah" (director-general), Foreign Minister, "setiausaha bahagian" (division secretary) and Akbar Khan.

The 15th witness also agreed with Ahmad Zaidi’s suggestion that the payments made to ministers and politicians as listed in the ledger were political contributions.

Lee also confirmed that funds paid to the individuals listed were from the company’s subcontractor in Hong Kong that was appointed to implement the foreign visa system (VLN) on its behalf, adding that the money had never been deposited into UKSB’s bank accounts.

Ahmad Zahid, 69, is facing 33 charges of receiving bribes amounting to S$13.56mil from UKSB for himself as home minister to extend the contract of the company as the operator of a one-stop centre (OSC) service in China and supply the VLN system as well as maintain the contract agreement to supply the VLN integrated system to the same company by the Home Ministry.

For another seven counts, he is charged with obtaining for himself S$1,150,000, RM3mil, 15,000 Euros and US$15,000 from the same company which has official links with his official duty.

He is charged with committing the offences at Seri Satria, Presint 16, Putrajaya and Country Heights Kajang between October 2014 and March 2018.

The trial before Judge Datuk Mohd Yazid Mustafa continues on May 30. – Bernama