Omar Ali's name crops up in Ahmad Zahid's corruption trial

KUALA LUMPUR: The name of money changer Omar Ali Abdullah, who acted as a 'middleman' to dish out payments involving Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, cropped up repeatedly during the former deputy prime minister's corruption trial today.

Three prosecution witnesses who testified said they all gave cheques with differing amounts, but without the recipient's name, to Omar Ali, who would then fill up the details and hand the cheques over to a law firm called Lewis & Co.

Lewis & Co has been identified as the trustee for Yayasan Akalbudi, from which Zahid is accused of having misappropriated funds.

Omar Ali, in his 50s, was said to own a money changing outlet in Bukit Bintang.

The fair-skinned man with a white beard, who was clad in a blue shirt and jeans, sat in a witness waiting room as he waited to be identified by the witnesses today.

Witness K. Rajan Gunaretnam, 64, said he gave a cheque of RM102,300 to Omar Ali as a repayment of RM100,000 which he had taken from the latter.

"I have known him (Omar Ali) for almost 20 years and borrowed RM100,000 from him to buy a luxury watch.

"I then sold the watch to another friend and made some money out of it. I then repaid Omar Ali his money and gave him RM2,300 as part of the profit which I made from the watch," he said.

Questioned by deputy public prosecutor Harris Ong Mohd Jeffery Ong, Rajan said he did not know why the cheque was issued to Lewis & Co.

Another witness, Cergas Murni Sdn Bhd director Datuk Khatijah Sulaiman @ Suleiman – who was the 60th prosecution witness, said she too had issued three cheques worth more than RM1 million to Omar Ali as security to obtain funding from the businessman to assist the company's project.

"During that time, we needed money to fund our projects and my friend told me Omar Ali could help me with it," she said, adding that all the cheques were eventually cashed by Lewis & Co.

Businessman Ong Weng Fatt, 61, said he also issued two cheques to Omar Ali to obtain cash for a currency exchange from Ringgit Malaysia (RM) to New Zealand dollars (NZ) and for his business.

"Omar Ali is an old friend of mine who I have known since 2014 when I made foreign exchange transactions with him.

"When I handed over the cheque in my office, he did not inform me that the cheque would be deposited into the Lewis & Co. account.

"I just wrote down the amount due in the cheque and I personally submitted it to Omar Ali at my office," said the 61st prosecution witness.

Ong said he wrote an anonymous cheque worth RM80,000 to be handed over to Omar Ali, and in exchange, the latter was to hand over RM80,000 cash to his supplier.

"I also issued a blank cheque of RM170,000 from my current account to Omar Ali for currency exchange as I wanted to provide cash for my son who was studying medicine in New Zealand.

"When I issued this cheque, I just signed it and handed it over to Omar Ali at his premises, Money Changer Marhaba Enterprise Sdn Bhd located in Bukit Bintang.

"After that, he personally wrote 'paid to Lewis & Co' in the amount of RM170,000 before me," he said, adding that he received about NZ$56,000 during that time.

Meanwhile, Mubarak Hussein, who was the 62nd prosecution witness, said he had issued a RM2 million donation to Zahid for the latter's tahfiz school into Lewis & Co.'s bank account.

"I wanted to donate RM2 million to a tahfiz school owned by Zahid and he asked me to transfer the cheque into the Lewis & Co. bank account.

"I used the money from my personal account and I was assured Zahid would use it for his tahfiz school in Melaka," he said.

The trial continues before High Court judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah.

On Oct 19 and Dec 14, 2018, as well as Feb 20 this year, Zahid had pleaded not guilty at the Sessions Court to a total of 47 charges, 12 of which are for criminal breach of trust (CBT), eight for bribery, and 27 for money laundering involving tens of millions of ringgit belonging to Yayasan Akalbudi.

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