Police want NFCorp directors charged with CBT

Police want NFCorp directors charged with CBT

UPDATED @ 08:36:47 PM 25-02-2012

By Yow Hong Chieh

February 25, 2012
Malaysian Insider

MACC investigators arrive at the NFCorp office in Kuala Lumpur, December 23, 2011. — File pic

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 25 — Police have asked the Attorney-General’s Chambers to charge National Feedlot Corporation (NFCorp) directors with criminal breach of trust after opposition politicians claimed a part of the government’s RM250 million soft loan was used for other purposes.

CCID Director Datuk Syed Ismail Syed Azizan confirmed the matter with several media organisations this evening.

“We are recommending to the Attorney-General’s Chambers that all NFCorp directors be charged (for CBT),” he told The Malaysian Insider.

NFCorp, which operates the national cattle-farming project, is chaired by federal minister Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil’s husband, Datuk Seri Mohamad Salleh Ismail. Their three children also hold executive posts in the company.

The NFC hit the headlines after it made it into the Auditor-General’s Report last year, and has continued to hog the limelight after it was linked to Shahrizat and her family.

Shahrizat maintains that she has no links to the family-run project.

Since then, PKR has revealed numerous startling exposes over the scandal-ridden project, including allegations that millions of ringgit have been siphoned off for land, property and personal expenses unrelated to cattle farming.

But recently, in response to claims that NFCorp had purchased two luxury condominiums worth RM34 million in Singapore’s posh Marina Bay Suites, Shahrizat’s son Wan Shahinur Izmir had explained that the company had decided that it would make better use of the money by investing in property during a break in business operations.

The break, said Wan Shahinur Izmir, was caused by the government’s decision to suspend the construction of an abattoir that would have been rented to NFCorp.

According to the DAP’s Tony Pua, however, the Finance Ministry had told a parliamentary committee last November that there was no provision that permits the NFCorp to use its federal loan to purchase property.

Earlier today, Pua revealed the NFCorp’s loan agreement, which he claimed proved that the company had violated conditions attached to the RM250 million facility.

Since the scandal exploded in the media, Shahrizat has been faced with repeated calls for her resignation, even from her colleagues in Umno. But she has insisted that the project had nothing to do with her.

The Wanita Umno chief applied for three weeks’ leave from her ministerial duties last month when new allegations of bribery surfaced. She has since resumed her duties.

Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin announced last month Putrajaya would appoint an auditor to scrutinise NFCorp’s books in light of accusations made against the company, but dismissed calls for a royal commission of inquiry into the NFC.