Wan Quoris Shah Wan Abdul Ghani, 42, said he was paid “adequately” although he started off at UKSB in 2013 with a salary of RM10,000.
A UKSB director until 2018, Wan Quoris said his salary was later raised to RM30,000 and finally to RM100,000.
“I took bank loans to pay for the properties and vehicles. I did not pay in cash,” he said when re-examined by deputy public prosecutor Wan Shaharuddin Wan Ladin in the corruption trial of former deputy prime minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.
Wan Quoris was asked to clarify whether the money he used to buy vehicles and properties in Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya and Cyberjaya came from Hong Kong.
The defence, under cross-examination, had accused Wan Quoris of being corrupt and an untrustworthy witness.
Earlier, when cross-examined by defence lawyer Hisyam Teh Poh Teik, Wan Quoris dismissed a suggestion that he, former UKSB director Harry Lee and former UKSB administrative manager David Tan had conspired to violate several laws.
The witness also denied Hisyam’s suggestion that they were involved in corrupt practices, money laundering and criminal breach of trust.
He also disagreed with the lawyer that he did not give any money to Zahid.
The Umno president is facing 33 charges of receiving bribes amounting to S$13.56 million (RM42 million) from UKSB as an inducement for himself in his capacity as a civil servant and the then home minister to extend the contract of the company as the operator of the One-Stop Centre (OSC) in China and the Foreign Visa System (VLN), as well as to maintain the agreement to supply VLN equipment to the same company by the ministry.
On another seven counts, he is charged as the home minister to have obtained for himself S$1,150,000, RM3 million, €15,000 and US$15,000 in cash from the same company in connection with his official work.
He is charged with committing all the offences at Seri Satria in Presint 16, Putrajaya, and Country Heights, Kajang, between October 2014 and March 2018.
The trial before judge Yazid Mustafa has been adjourned to Thursday.