Brothers cleared in Muslim school fraud trial

as posted here

Two directors of a Muslim girls school in Kenwick have been cleared on charges they stole $355,000 of federal and state funds and transferred the money to Afghanistan.

The jury took just over two hours to reach their not guilty verdicts for brothers Anwar Sayed, 50, and Zubair Sayed, 33.

Flanked by their lawyers and friends, the two men rejoiced at their acquittals.

Anwar Sayed gave a triumphant wave and said he was "relieved" the trial had ended in his favour while Zubair Sayed said he felt "vindicated" by the verdict.

The brothers had pleaded not guilty to stealing more than $355,000 in April 2007 from the company which ran the Muslim Ladies' College of Australia.

The school was situated in Bickley Road on land owned by Anwar Sayed.

Zubair Sayed transferred the money from a bank in Cannington to a Pakistani bank account which his older brother - who was overseas at the time - could access so he could set up a school in Afghanistan.

The case against the two men - who were both directors of Muslim Link Australia - was based on claims Anwar Sayed had no legal entitlement to the money and that he did not have a genuine belief that he was allowed to withdraw the funds from the company account.

Prosecutors during the trial - which started last Monday - told the jury that documents showing Anwar Sayed was to be paid deferred salary and rent were fake, and that he did not inject enough of his own money that was covered by the $355,000 withdrawal.

The State also claimed the public funding from the Commonwealth and State governments was to help keep the Kenwick school running and to improve the facilities, and not to help set up another school in Afghanistan.

Prosecutor Alan Troy also accused the men of concealing the transfer by taking the funds without notifying key people within the school and company.

Defence lawyers for the brothers argued the Commonwealth funding was only for ''recurrent expenditure'' such as rent and salary, and as such, Anwar Sayed was legally entitled to the money that was owed to him.

The Commonwealth funding did not cover capital expenditure, so improvements could not take place with those grants.

Anwar Sayed's lawyer, Mark Trowell, QC, said his client had only taken about 30 per cent of what he was actually owed, and if it was not for his contributions, the school would not have got off the ground.

Zubair Sayed's lawyer, Andrew Skerritt, told the jury the 33-year-old had organised the overseas transfer because he was privy to the deferred rent and salary agreements signed in 2002, so he genuinely believed the money belonged to his brother.

Anwar Sayed had deposited almost $340,000 into the school over several years and the bank statements would support that, Mr Trowell said.


as posted here

School founder would have bolted if guilty: lawyer

as posted here

JOSEPH SAPIENZA
September 17, 2009
A man accused of stealing $355,000 from the Perth school he founded would have taken a lot more money and fled Australia if he acted dishonestly, a court has heard.

Anwar Sayed, 50, and his brother Zubair Sayed, 33, are on trial for stealing the money - provided through Federal and State government funding - from the parent company of the Muslim Ladies College, in Kenwick, and siphoning it to an account in Pakistan.

Both have denied stealing the money, claiming the money belonged to Anwar Sayed.

They say that because Sayed had ploughed more than $1 million of his own money into the school, he was legally entitled to withdraw the money from the school's bank account in April 2007 and use it to help set up a sister college in Afghanistan.

Sayed was in Pakistan when the money was transferred, but returned to Perth later that year. The prosecution says the money in dispute was federal and state funding for upkeep of the Kenwick school.

Defence lawyer Mark Trowell, QC, told a Perth District Court jury yesterday that Sayed had taken only about 30 per cent of what he was owed by the school.

Documents showed Sayed deferred his salary and rental income for four years until 2007, while he made cash deposits totalling at least $330,000 to the school, Mr Trowell said.

Sayed also deferred an annual rental income of $289,000 over four years and an average $35,000 a year in salary.

As one of three directors of the company, Sayed was authorised to withdraw funds from the company's account at his discretion, Mr Trowell said.

He added that no effort had been made by the two men to conceal the overseas transfer, as Zubair Sayed had given a bag containing cheque books to a staff member - which included the cheque butt in question - while the other signatory on the cheque "had no objection to the transfer".

The jury is expected to deliver a verdict today.


as posted here

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