KUALA LUMPUR: Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah admitted that he received RM9.5 million from Datuk Seri Najib Razak but said the payment formed part of more than RM20 million in fees owed to him for legal services performed for Umno and Barisan Nasional.
The RM9.5 million, he said, was for legal services fees for 46 election petition files in 2004 and 2006.
Shafee denied that the payment was over his involvement in prosecuting PKR president-elect Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s second sodomy case appeals.
Shafee was responding to allegations by Anwar that Shafee had received payments of RM9.5 million in two tranches of RM4.3 million and RM5.2 million in 2013 and 2014, respectively, from the personal account of Najib, who is former prime minister.
Shafee said he had acted for Umno and Barisan Nasional, including during Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s first tenure as prime minister.
He said he also accrued many uncollected bills for his legal work.
Shafee said the payment was handled by Najib who had then learned that Umno had not paid the legal fees.
He said that around September 2013, he had met Najib in the Prime Minister’s Office over various matters. He had then informed Najib over the need to be paid for his services thus far for Umno and BN.
Shafee said that at the time, he needed money to purchase a property from a friend, who desperately needed to dispose of that property in order to purchase a new one for his family.
“Najib learned for the first time that I have not been paid by Umno for all these years since the time of Dr Mahathir and he inquired from me what would be the fees that had been accumulated over the years since early 1990’s. I told him the total fees would be in the region of not less than RM20 million, but I was not asking for all that.
“I told him that I would be happy if he could settle about RM11 million worth of legal work in 46 election petition files, the subject matter of the years in 2004 and 2006.
“Najib however, agreed to pay RM9.5 million as a complete settlement of the legal fees of the 46 election petition matters but he had asked me to rationalise the paperwork later. I agreed to this arrangement.”
Shafee, however, said he did not know the source of payment made by Najib.
“Here I must stress that I was made to understand that Najib was made responsible for handling the party’s funds as this was a normal party practice.
“I had at that time absolutely no knowledge of the source of the payments to me by Najib.”
Shafee said he had acted for Umno and BN without any specific retainers during the terms of the previous prime ministers since Dr Mahathir. Apart from Umno, he also acted for BN component parties such as MIC and MCA or Gerakan.
“Cases that were assigned to me and my firm ranged from election petitions to other serious litigations involving Umno and BN. I remember undertaking litigation works on behalf of Umno and some other clients in relation to the mega damages in defamation matters.
“I have personally rendered on countless occasions legal opinions as and when required by Umno, BN or any of its component parties. I have been rendering this assistance to Umno sometime from the early part of the 1990’s until now but I have never been a member of Umno or any other political parties.”
He said during those times, had never joined Umno as its member.
“My association with Umno, BN and the government was as a solicitor and counsel, nothing more. I have accrued many uncollected bills for my legal work from the days of Dr Mahathir as the prime minister (then), especially during the period when Datuk Mohamed Rahmat was the secretary-general for both Umno and BN.
“To complete the picture, I have also rendered legal services to the BN government and the respective prime ministers by providing urgent legal opinions and documentation. The numerous files that have been opened with respect to all these works have not received any fees for a long time as Umno had always promised me and my firm that the payment was
forthcoming.
“In some of these cases, some small disbursements were paid and in some others, no disbursements were paid at all, and my firm had to be saddled with the initial disbursements.”
Anwar had recently claimed that Shafee had received two payments of RM4.3 million and RM5.2 million, respectively, from Najib between 2013 and 2014. This was submitted by a special task officer to the attorney-general in response to Anwar's appeal against his second sodomy conviction, for which he has since been given a royal pardon.
Anwar had, at the Kuala Lumpur High Court, argued that he was denied a fair trial as his prosecutor had received payment from Najib.