Umno No 2 Other Leaders All In The Dark Over Secret Unaudited Bank Account

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Several Umno leaders claim to have no knowledge of a secret unaudited bank account used to receive political donations, which was revealed in court yesterday.
Among those who claimed to be in the dark was Umno deputy president Mohamad Hasan.
"It is not to my knowledge that Umno has a secret account," he told Malaysiakini.
Others who claimed to have no knowledge of the alleged secret account were supreme council member Zahidi Zainul Abidin, and former supreme council member Nazri Abdul Aziz.
Existence of the secret bank account was claimed by the prosecution in the government’s 1MDB-linked forfeiture suit against Obyu Holdings.
Umno had claimed that the money the government wanted to seize belonged to the party.
In a written submission rebutting this, the prosecution claimed the account, which was unaudited, was used to receive political donations.
The prosecution said this was in violation of the Societies Act.
The prosecution also alleged that the Umno's claim over unaudited monies also possibly violated the Societies Act, and could result in the party being de-registered.
The secret account is said to have been in existence since 1988, when Dr Mahathir Mohamad was Umno president.


Mahathir had in 2015 said during his time helming Umno, political donations went into a party account that had three trustees including himself.
"The trustees would have an account. All donations, particularly for elections, are deposited into this account...
"The trustees were also named as equity holders and property owners on behalf of Umno," he said.
Umno was previously deregistered in 1988 - the same year the account was allegedly opened - after the courts found it had violated the Societies Act due to the existence of several unregistered branches.
Asked about a possible probe by the Registrar of Societies, Zahidi said the authorities should wait for the Obyu court case to be settled first before carrying out any investigations. - Mkini

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