KUALA LUMPUR, July 6 — Umno president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi insisted in court today that his charity foundation used RM8.6 million in 2016 to buy shares in an hotel operator in Bali, Indonesia as an “investment”, and denied his daughter had a personal interest in the matter.
“I stated that it is for the purposes of investment and my daughter does not have personal interest, does not own shares, except that it was agreed by that company for her to monitor the carrying out of that investment on behalf of Yayasan Akalbudi,” the former deputy prime minister claimed. Asked if he was aware that Ri-Yaz had financial problems due to its outstanding debt to the Exim Bank then, Ahmad Zahid said the company’s loan could be one of the reasons why it was looking for new investors, but suggested that the company was also seeking to expand.
Harris then noted that buying shares in the hotel operator is not related to mosques which was alleged to be the purposes of millions in ringgit of donations to Yayasan Akalbudi, but Ahmad Zahid continued to maintain that the foundation has to at the same time make efforts to carry out investments in order to generate profits to be able to continue carrying out charity works.
One of the 12 criminal breach of trust charges involves Ahmad Zahid allegedly having transferred Yayasan Akalbudi’s RM17.9 million to Lewis & Co., almost half of the funds or around RM8.6 million were initially used for the purchase of shares in the hotel company, before it was returned to the law firm after the deal fell through and then only placed into fixed deposits.