KUALA LUMPUR, May 23 — Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi told the High Court that no money from taxpayers went into Yayasan Akalbudi, the charitable foundation he founded and from which he is accused of misappropriating funds.

The former deputy prime minister said this while testifying as the first defence witness in his criminal breach of trust (CBT), corruption and money laundering trial today.

Asked by his lawyer Datuk Ahmad Zaidi Zainal whether any of Yayasan Akalbudi’s funds originated from public or government funds, the accused stressed that the charitable foundation funds were mostly funded by him as well as donations.

"Yang Arif, all the sources, not one cent of it came from government or taxpayers’ money, from the citizens,” Ahmad Zahid said.

He noted that he held corporate roles, including leading several public listed companies and was even the chairman of Bank Simpanan Nasional at one time prior to holding government roles such as the deputy minister, minister or deputy prime minister.

He said that the allowances he received as CEO and chairman of listed companies exceeded the needs of his family’s expenditure, and that took his father’s advice to donate the excess income for the sake of the welfare and religious purposes of those who needed them.

He said this meant that the funds in Yayasan Akalbudi — initially known as Yayasan Budi — were from his personal income from allowances the he received from his corporate work, as well as dividends he received from his investment in such companies.

"Besides that, I also carried out trading in the stock exchange, not limited to my trading of the companies that I were involved in, but I also did share trading whether in the category of blue chips or shares that were listed —IPOs or others — to get income that I entered into Yayasan Akalbudi funds.

"Besides that, there were several contributions from my friends and business figures who are unrelated to the portfolios that I held, because before that I didn’t hold any positions in government.

"Meaning Yayasan Akalbudi’s income, not even a single cent — up until its accounts were frozen — came from the government or from the public’s money or taxpayers’ money,” he said.

Ahmad Zahid told his lawyer that he could not remember the exact sum of his personal funds that he had put into Yayasan Akalbudi, but estimated it to be in the tens of millions of ringgit originating from his corporate activities.

Ahmad Zahid also read out excerpts from his statement to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) in October 2018 while under investigation.

Among them, he said that after he became deputy prime minister, most of the contributions to Yayasan Akalbudi came from external sources, including tycoons Tan Sri Vincent Tan and Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Albukhary.

In this trial, Ahmad Zahid ― who is a former home minister and currently the Umno president ― faces 47 charges, namely 12 counts of criminal breach of trust in relation to charitable foundation Yayasan Akalbudi’s funds, 27 counts of money laundering, and eight counts of bribery charges.

https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2022/05/23/not-a-single-sen-of-taxpayers-money-went-to-yayasan-akalbudi-on-trial-zahid-insists/8305