The managing director of Aset Kayamas Sdn Bhd has confirmed giving RM2 million worth of political donation to former Federal Territories minister Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor.
Chai Kin Kong confirmed to the High Court on Tuesday that the party informed him of the need to shell out between RM5 million to RM6 million for election funds, but only RM2 million was what he could afford.
“He (Tengku Adnan) asked me how much I could give. I did not promise any amount, but said I would hand over a cheque to him when I had the money,” Chai said during cross-examination by deputy public prosecutor Julia Ibrahim at Tengku Adnan’s corruption trial.
Chai said that he directed his accountant to transmit the funds through a Hong Leong Bank cheque from Aset Kayamas to a company named Tadmansori Holdings Sdn Bhd, which Tengku Adnan owns a stake in.
“At that point, I did not know who owned Tadmansori Holdings, and I did not ask him why the donation had to be made to Tadmansori Holdings, and not Umno’s account,” he said in Cantonese which was translated to Bahasa Malaysia by a court interpreter.
“Neither my companies nor I had ever conducted business with Tadmansori Holdings,” he added.
Chai’s business is engaged in logging, construction, and hospitality ventures. He said he got to know Tengku Adnan while carrying out his logging business in Jerantut, Pahang in the 1980s when the logging community “was quite small”.
Chai also said that Tengku Adnan had asked him sometime in September 2013 to build affordable homes in Kuala Lumpur, where units will be priced below RM300,000. He said he agreed to Tengku Adnan’s proposal.
However, former Kuala Lumpur Mayor Tan Sri Ahmad Phesal Talib told the High Court that acquired land for where the affordable housing project will rise belonged to Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) and could not be sold without the consent of the Federal Territories Minister.
The witness, who is currently Education Service Commission Malaysia deputy chairman, cited Section 101(1)(r)(i) of the Local Government Act 1976, that local authorities have the power to sell, lease or dispose of any of their movable or immovable properties.
“Under Section 2 of this act, the interpretation of state authority is in relation to Federal Territory, meaning the Minister responsible for the local government (who at the time was Tengku Adnan),” he said during his testimony on the seventh day of Tengku Adnan’s corruption trial.
The 18th prosecution witness, Ahmad Phesal, 65, said that there were 10 parcels of land bought and developed by Aset Kayamas during his tenor as mayor from July 18, 2012, to July 17, 2015.
“This land was developed for affordable housing in line with the ministry’s Key Performance Indicator to complete 80,000 units of Federal Territory Affordable Housing Project (Rumawip KL) within five years before the 14th General Election,” he said.
Apart from Aset Kayamas, companies used by Chai to purchase the total land area were Sinerjuta Sdn Bhd, Faber Vista Sdn Bhd and Era Ecoland Sdn Bhd, after Aset Kayamas was rejected to purchase two plots.
Aset Kayamas then appealed for sale of lots 53427 and 53653 via a letter dated April 20, 2015, addressed to Tengku Adnan.
“I then held further discussions with Tengku Adnan, the outcome of which was that I was directed by the minister to bring the DBKL land purchase matter to the One Stop Centre (OSC) meeting,” Chai said.
“At the preliminary discussion, we agreed that part of the 0.5 acres of land should be allocated for the construction of a hostel,” he added.
Prior to bringing the matter to the OSC meeting, Ahmad Phesal said that he broached the subject at the DBKL PANDU Privatisation Projects meeting on April 27, 2015, which decided that there would be no objection to the sale of the two plots after all. Ahmad Phesal also chaired the PANDU meeting then.
He said the matter was brought to the OSC special committee meeting chaired by Tengku Adnan on May 14, 2015, and later approved the proposal to transform the lots into affordable housing, freehold houses and DBKL hostel on with some technical conditions to be met.
The trial will continue before Justice Mohamed Zaini Mazlan on Wednesday (July 17).
Earlier reports:
July 9, Ku Nan Gave Umno RM100K-RM300K Cash Every Month
July 3, Letters from Developer Contained Directives from Tengku Adnan
July 2, Ex-Personal Driver Deposited RM2M Cheque on Tengku Adnan’s Orders
July 2, Tengku Adnan Got RM2M to Fund By-Election