PKR wants NFC probed for money laundering

Opposition party PKR wants the controversial National Feedlot Corporation (NFC), which is owned and operated by the family of former minister Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, to be investigated for money laundering.

NFC, said strategy director Rafizi Ramli, was involved in illegal transactions using sister companies to pay for cattle purchases and that this involved violation of the Anti-Money Laundering Act.

He claimed that a letter of credit issued by NFC was used by sister company National Meat & Livestock Corporation (NMLC), to pay for a cattle purchase.

However, this purchase, Rafizi said, was made by Global Biofuture Pte Ltd, which is another company also owned by the family of Shahrizat.

"How can a company make payments on the invoice of another company? This is an illegal transfer of funds between NMLC and Global Biofuture.

"I am pretty sure that this is a breach of the Anti-Money Laundering Act," Rafizi added.
He furnished the members of the media present with copies of documents detailing the purchase of 1,275 live cattle by Global Biofuture in 2010.

This included copies of emails between NFC's Singapore agent to the company's finance department requesting a letter of credit for just under US$1 million and a request for payment from NMLC.

The same letter of credit, with the same reference number, was listed in an invoice to Global Biofuture from the Australian cattle supplier as being the mode of payment.

No free movement of monies

Speaking at a press conference at party headquarters in Petaling Jaya today, he explained that each company was a separate entity, with separate accounts and there should not be any free movement of monies among them, despite these being owned by the same people.

The Act, Rafizi said, was put in place for that very purpose, to prevent companies from transferring funds among one another improperly, as this could be abused by terrorists, criminals and those who swindle funds.

What was more serious, he said, was that in the case of NFC, it involved public funds, since the company was funded by the government.

Rafizi contended that if the government was serious about enforcing financial laws such as the Banking and Financial Institutions Act (Bafia), under which he himself has been hauled up for allegedly releasing confidential NFC financial details, then it should enforce the Anti-Money Laundering Act as well.

He said that PKR would be lodging a police report on the matter soon and may also file a complaint with Bank Negara against the controversial firm.
Malaysiakini has contacted NFC's representative for a response and is still awaiting their reply.