Muslim school directors had no right to money: court

as posted here

JOSEPH SAPIENZA
September 16, 2009
Two brothers who allegedly stole $355,000 in public funding for a Perth Muslim girls' school and siphoned the funds to Pakistan had no legal entitlement to the money, a Perth court was told yesterday.

Anwar Sayed, 50, and his younger brother, Zubair, 33, have been on trial in the Perth District Court for more than a week, accused of stealing the money from Muslim Link Australia – a company that ran and helped set up the Muslim Ladies College in Kenwick – in April 2007.

The brothers were directors of Muslim Link Australia. Both men have pleaded not guilty to the charges, claiming Anwar Sayed was entitled to the money that was transferred out of the Commonwealth Bank account to a bank in Karachi, Pakistan.

It is claimed the money - granted to pay for maintenance and upkeep of the school - was transferred to set up a sister Islamic school in Kabul, Afghanistan.

During closing remarks, prosecutor Alan Troy said the school's board or treasurer did not approve any transaction for the brothers.

He further claimed Anwar Sayed had not put enough of his own money into the company to warrant the $355,000 withdrawal.

''There was no entitlement to this money that was transferred,'' he said.

''The prosecution does not say this is a case that Anwar Sayed did not put a single cent in to the school. But any money that he had contributed prior to April 16, 2007, was less than the money that was transferred out.''

Mr Troy said deferred lease, salary and rent agreements from the school to Anwar Sayed - who owned the land on which the school was built - were a ''recent invention, a falsity''.

''Those (lease, salary and rent) documents are not genuine, and only came into existence after the (police) search so as to justify what had happened in April,'' Mr Troy said.

Mr Troy questioned why Anwar Sayed did not take his salary from the beginning of 2005, when Federal and State government funding began to flow to the school.

He also noted the company accountant did not acknowledge the deferred rent - which indicated the agreements were spurious.

Mr Troy said another member of the company was forced to sign blank cheques, and that signatory only found out about the transfer in question a long time after it was made.

''It was a deliberate and underhand procedure,'' Mr Troy said of the transaction.

''It was quarantined and confined to the two accused.

''They took $355,000 from the account ... without convening a meeting, without notifying the accountant. They were the only people who knew about it.''

Lawyers for the two accused men will present their closing submissions this morning.


as posted here