Kota Kinabalu: The Special Corruption Court heard, Wednesday, that 346 pieces of jewellery, 86 watches and three luxury pens seized from a former Water Department Director and two others in a corruption case were valued at RM5.13 million.
Testifying as the prosecution’s 21st witness Siow Der Ming, a director of Poh Kong Holding Berhad, Petaling Jaya, told Judge Abu Bakar Manat that he was on Dec. 15, 2016 contacted by one Zamri from the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) informing him that his expertise was needed to assist in assessing gold in respect of cases being investigated by the MACC at Bank Negara, Sabah.
On trial are Ag Mohd Tahir, 58, his wife Fauziah Piut, 55, and former deputy director of the department Lim Lam Beng, 66, who had on Dec 29, 2016 pleaded not guilty to 37 counts of money laundering charges, involving cash and bank savings amounting to RM61.57 million, as well as unlawful possession of luxury goods.
Siow said he went to the MACC office Kuala Lumpur on Dec 9, bringing along necessary equipment for the assessment process and was led into the room valuation that places the items.
The evaluation session on the jewellery in several bags and boxes was monitored by several MACC officials and took about seven hours from 10am until 7.30pm.
Among valued were various types of gold such as 999, 950, 916, 835, 750, 375 along with jewellery stones, various jewellery items such as white gold, gemstones, watches and some accessory items, various gemstones such as Jade, Sapphire, Ruby, Gem, Pearl and various “Semi Precious Stone” and various types of gold such as White Gold and Yellow Gold along with gemstones.
Siow verified the documents referred to him by the prosecution namely the Report And Valuation On Item (Gold/Non-Gold/ Handwatch/Accessories) dated Dec. 15, 2016, which he made after the evaluation of the item. Following Siow’s evaluation, the total value of 346 items of jewellery listed in the document at RM2.74 million, 86 luxury designer watches at 2.39 million and three Mont Blanc pens at RM5,500.
This was based on the market price in December 2016.
Asked by Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Mahadi Abdul Jumaat whether he knew all the 346 pieces of jewellery were owned by an individual or company, Siow replied he had no real knowledge.
He said based on his 32 years experience in the precious metal retailing business and expertise to evaluate the price of gold and jewellery items, it was a bit abnormal but not impossible for someone to own that much jewellery.
Asked what is the current price of jewellery that has been valued at RM1.7 million in 2016, Siow replied: “If referring to the 2016 gold market price, the average market price was USD1,250 per ounce. Today, the market price of gold is about USD1,800 per ounce increasing about 45 per cent. So if assessed by the current price it may be RM2.5 million.
On whether all the jewellery he valued was pure or fake, Siow said that other than classified as accessories, they were all pure.
Siow said there were some as accessories that were not expensive brands, some were cheap and some were expensive and that 70 per cent of the 86 watches were probably 70 per cent luxury watches.
To a question based on his experience about whether it was normal for an individual to have nearly 50 luxury watches, Siow replied that if not a watch collector, 50 luxury watches for an individual was a bit unusual for him.
To another question about whether all the watches which he valued were genuine or fake, Siow said other than classified as accessories, they were all genuine.
On the Mont Blanc pens, Siow said they were genuine and the cheapest was more than RM1,000 and that the price was also determined based on its finishing touch.
Earlier, Siow testified that during the evaluation of the jewellery, some important equipment needed to be used to ensure that the authenticity of the gold is beyond doubt and that among the equipment used were gold scales and “loupe”.
After the examination-in-chief of the witness, the prosecution informed the court that they have decided for the identification process as well as the marking of the exhibits by Siow as well as several other witnesses will be conducted simultaneously within a period to be determined later.
DPP Mahadi submitted for the purpose of identifying and marking all the exhibits for the record of the court, they had to use other methods other than bringing all the exhibits to court as they are worth millions of Ringgit and are now stored in the vault at Bank Negara Malaysia, Sabah Branch.
“In order to ensure the safety of the exhibits, the safety of all the court parties and also to avoid other problems that may arise during the movement of the exhibits from Bank Negara Malaysia to the court, we have decided to process the identification and marking of exhibits by Siow as well as several other witnesses will be conducted simultaneously in a period to be determined later.
“Due to the above factors, the prosecution requested that Siow be released pending identification and cross-examination by counsel,” he said.
Counsel Marcel Jude hoped that identification of the exhibits can be done as soon as possible as his clients were concerned about whether the exhibit in the list tally in the actual exhibits in Bank Negara.
He also submitted that the seizure of the items was not under AMLA Act.
“It was a seizure under the MACC Act and under Section 41(2) any seizure under the Act if there is no prosecution must be released within 18 months. Now the seizure of these items expired on April 4, 2018.
“Therefore the items in Bank Negara Malaysia are held under unlawful seizure under the last four years, submitted Marcel.
Abu Bakar ruled that for the physical identification of the exhibits, the court would set a date after all the witnesses related to the exhibits had testified in court.
“This is to avoid logistical and security problems as well as to ensure the continuity of evidence given by the witnesses,” he said.
In relation to the application raised by Marcel for directions relating to exhibits, the court ruled that at the present stage, the application is premature as the trial is still ongoing and it involves exhibits which are the subject matter in this case.
“This application can be made at the end of the trial of the case after all the witnesses have testified and the exhibits have also been tendered and identified in court, held the court.
Meanwhile, the prosecution’s 22nd witness, Khalid Abdul Marlik Hakim told the court that the Amanah Saham Bumiputera (ASB) account belonging to Fauziah had been frozen on the instructions of the MACC.
Khalid, who was previously a former senior executive of the Organisation and Methods Department, Amanah Saham Nasional Berhad (ASNB) stated in his witness statement that the investment balance under Fauziah’s name when the account was seized or frozen by the MACC was RM680,793.41.
Deputy Public Prosecutors Mahadi Abdul Jumaat and Haresh Prakash Somiah appeared for the prosecution.
Ag Mohd Tahir and Fauziah were represented by counsel Marcel Jude, while Lim was represented by counsel Datuk Tan Hock Chuan, Aaron Lau, Baldev Singh and Karpaljit Singh.
Trial continues.
