PETALING JAYA (THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - Umno secretary-general Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor had assets of almost RM1 billion (S$330 million), it was revealed in his corruption trial on Wednesday (March 4), raising questions over the huge sum.
Former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak on Friday (March 6) defended Tengku Adnan, claiming his former Cabinet minister acquired his wealth from shares he held in various companies back in the 1990s.
Najib said the former Federal Territories minister was a trading partner of businessman Vincent Tan from the Berjaya group.
Tengku Adnan, 69, was emotional when the sum was revealed in the High Court soon after he failed to convince the judge through his lawyers that details of his assets should be heard in a closed court.
"When I say I do not want to declare myself, it is because publicly you know why," Tengku Adnan told the court.
"Now I have a problem. After I mentioned nearly a billion (ringgit in assets), they will want to sensationalise it. That's why I feel deprived, " he said in a voice choked with emotion.
His defence team wanted his assets to be known to the court to show that he did not need to take a RM2 million bribe, which is at the centre of his corruption trial, as he is a wealthy man.
Tengku Adnan is accused of receiving the bribe from a property developer, in his capacity as Federal Territories minister. His defence has claimed that the money was used by Umno for its election campaigning.
Tengku Adnan informed the court that he had declared his assets during his tenure in the Cabinet since 2001 to three prime ministers, namely Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and Najib.
To further questioning regarding his total assets declared to Dr Mahathir in 2001, Tengku Adnan said: "I think it is over RM900 million."
Asked by his counsel, Mr Tan Hock Chuan, whether the figure was RM938,643,566.16, the former minister answered in the affirmative.
Tengku Adnan also confirmed that he had declared his assets amounting to RM711,325,822.00 to prime minister Abdullah in 2006, along with RM691,770,649.00 and RM782,748,061.00 to Najib, in 2013 and 2016 respectively.
On Oct 14 last year, the High Court ordered Tengku Adnan to enter his defence after finding that the prosecution had established a prima facie case against him.
On Thursday M(March 5), Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission's (MACC) chief commissioner Latheefa Koya, just before news broke that she had resigned, directed her officers to investigate how Tengku Adnan managed to accumulate the huge sums.
Defending his former minister, Najib said in a Facebook post on Friday (March 6) that apart from being a business partner of Mr Vincent Tan, Tengku Adnan held shares in news publishing companies as well as a telecommunications company.
Najib referenced economist Edmund Terence Gomez's book, Malaysia's Political Economy: Politics, Patronage and Profits, to make his point.
"In the early 1990s, the Malaysians stock market was bullish. It was then that he acquired his wealth," Najib claimed.
Najib said Dr Mahathir was the prime minister then, while the finance minister was the "future prime minister", alluding to Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
"That is why there is a need to ask the both of them if you want to know how Tengku Adnan became wealthy," Najib said.
