Megat Najmuddin confirms he wrote NFC email

By Yow Hong Chieh

January 12, 2012

 

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 12 — Tan Sri Megat Najmuddin Megat Khas has confirmed that he authored the email which PKR presented earlier today as proof that a top National Feedlot Corporation (NFC) official had allegedly tried to bribe the police.

However, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) advisory board member said the email — in which he had related an NFC lawyer’s account of how an official with the cattle raising scheme allegedly tried to influence the police with money — was entirely speculative.

“It was a personal email and a personal opinion based purely on conjecture on my part as no investigations had started then. A lot of hearsay here. The MACC is already investigating the matter,” he told The Malaysian Insider via email.

Megat Najmuddin (picture), who also sits on the Umno disciplinary committee, added that he was “very upset” that PKR strategic director Rafizi had used his private email unethically.

Rafizi had earlier disclosed the existence of the email to reporters, which he said proved that the NFC had tried to bribe CCID officers probing the cattle scheme for alleged abuse of funds.
The email was sent by Megat Najmuddin to a large private group on December 31, 2011, following his dinner with an NFC lawyer.

According to the email, the lawyer told the advisory board member how the NFC official had been tricked into paying money to a “conman” — understood to be Datuk Shamsubahrin Ismail — to allegedly influence the ongoing police probe into the publicly funded project.

Shamsubahrin was recently charged with cheating NFC chairman Datuk Mohamad Salleh Ismail of RM1.76 million in fraudulent consultancy fees.

“He (the lawyer) told us about this conman’s story, about how this sweet-talking guy managed to convince his desperate client to part with his money so that he can get the police to be ‘less brutal’ in their interrogation!

“It’s sad to see how stupid one can get when you are stuck ‘between a rock and a hard place’!” the email read.

Megat Najmuddin, who is also president of the Malaysian Institute of Corporate Governance, went on to say the official may now be open to a charge of being an accomplice in an attempt to bribe the police.
He added that the MACC could now intervene in what was previously a police matter.

PKR will be making another report to the anti-graft body at its office in Shah Alam at 3.30pm today based on the contents of the email.

Police are probing the NFC for possible criminal breach of trust following PKR’s allegations that millions in federal funds meant for the cattle raising scheme had been misappropriated.

The opposition party first latched onto the issue after the NFC, run by Mohamad Salleh, made it into last year’s Auditor-General’s Report for failing to meet production targets.

Mohamad Salleh, a former food science head at Universiti Pertanian Malaysia, is husband to federal minister and Wanita Umno chief Datuk Seri Shahrizat Jalil.

PKR has since made several revelations relating to the scandal, including NFC’s purchase of two luxury condominium units in Bangsar and the alleged use of project funds to pay for Shahrizat and her family’s personal expenses.

It also claimed there was a transfer of resources to unrelated companies in Singapore, as well as the purchase of a Mercedes-Benz CLS350 for RM534,622 and two plots of land in Putrajaya’s Precinct 10 for RM3,363,507.

PKR further alleged that some RM10 million had been diverted towards the purchase of a luxury condominium unit in Singapore for Shahrizat’s family.

Shahrizat has tried to deflect attention by stating she is “only the wife” of the national cattle farming project’s chairman and has nothing to do with the NFC.

The senator has faced calls to quit as minister from within Umno, including from influential former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.