Cops seize NFCorp properties

KUALA LUMPUR, June 19 — Police have confiscated four properties belonging to the National Feedlot Corporation (NFCorp) to aid investigations into the RM250 million cattle-farming scheme involving the family of Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil.

According to Star Online, Bukit Aman said in a statement released today that the properties were seized yesterday under the Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorism Financing Act 2001.

The four properties are said to be the NFCorp’s two condominium units here and two plots of land in Putrajaya.

The RM250 million publicly-funded cattle-raising project was first coined a “mess” in an article in The Star after it made it into the pages of the Auditor-General’s 2010 Report for failing to meet production targets.

The term was later repeated by other media organisations to describe NFCorp after PKR launched a series of exposés to show that the project’s funds had been allegedly abused.

NFCorp chairman Datuk Seri Mohamad Salleh Ismail, who is Shahrizat’s husband, was charged with criminal breach of trust (CBT) and violating the Companies Act in relation to RM49 million in federal funds given to NFCorp last March 12.

The 64-year-old was charged under the Penal Code relating to CBT for misappropriating RM9,758,140 from NFCorp’s funds to purchase two condominium units at the One Menerung complex in Bangsar for the National Meat and Livestock Corporation (NMLC) on December 1 and December 4, 2009.

He was also charged with transferring RM40 million of NFCorp’s funds to the NMLC between May 6 and November 16, 2009.

He was further charged in both cases for using the said funds without any approval from company’s annual general meeting, in violation of the Companies Act.

If found guilty, he faces between two and 20 years’ imprisonment, whipping, and a fine for the offences under the Penal Code.

Mohamad Salleh also faces a five-year jail term or RM30,000 fine for the charges proffered under the Companies Act.

He pleaded not guilty to the CBT charge as well as two counts under the Companies Act in the scandal that has opened Datuk Seri Najib Razak and the Barisan Nasional government to damaging attacks ahead of elections that must be called by March next year.