KUALA LUMPUR: The late Tan Sri Dr Jamaluddin Jarjis named two of his four children trustees for his entire stake in billion-ringgit company Rantai Wawasan Sdn Bhd, which is the subject of an ongoing dispute between the two children and their paternal grandmother.

But the High Court here was told that the beneficiary of the trust was the late science and technology minister himself, and that two deeds of the trust to divide the shares equally among his four children were executed eight months after his death in April 2015.

This was revealed yesterday by the deceased’s half-brother Mohamed Najeb Ali, who was the first witness to testify in the case, where Jamaluddin’s mother Aminah Abdullah is claiming a stake in RM1.3 billion of the late minister’s estate from her grandchildren Nur Anis Jamaluddin and Ikhwan Hafiz Jamaluddin. During the examination-in-chief by Aminah’s lawyer Pawancheek Merican, Mohamed Najeb pointed to two deeds of trust made on March 11, 2009 — one between Jamaluddin and Nur Anis, and another between Jamaluddin and Ikhwan Hafiz.

The court was shown Nur Anis is the trustee for 2.1 million shares in Rantai Wawasan, while Ikhwan Hafiz is the trustee for another 900,000 shares in the company.

“To my understanding, the deceased is the beneficiary of these trusts, and the defendants are trustees,” Mohamed Najeb testified.

“What I understand from these documents is that, you know, the shares in these companies belong to the beneficiary,” he added.

He said two other trust deeds were made on Dec 31, 2015 to equally divide the three million combined stake in Rantai Wawasan among Jamaluddin’s children, namely Nur Anis, 34, Ikhwan Hafiz, 32, Nurul Alyaa, 28, and Noor Adilla, 24. Mohamed Najeb disagreed with the suggestion the deceased gave his consent for the two subsequent deeds to be drawn up. But the witness did not say who asked for the deeds to be made.

During his cross-examination by lawyer Chew Chang Min, who represented the defendants, he insisted that the group of companies under Teras Dara Konsortium Sdn Bhd (TDK) were run by Jamaluddin. The lawyer had put to the witness that the TDK group of companies were run by their respective board members rather than the ex-minister. These companies include Rantai Wawasan, Alpine Motion Sdn Bhd and Ivory Insights Sdn Bhd, with directors including Ahmad Puzi Abdullah, Datuk Zakri Afandi Ismail and Tengku Zahaimi Hashim.

Mohamed Najeb agreed with the lawyer’s suggestion TDK was managed by a professional board of directors but refuted the imputation that Jamaluddin was not running the company.The lawyer then asked the witness whether he had asked Ahmad Puzi or Tengku Zahaimi if they were running the group of companies on behalf of Jamaluddin, to which Mohamed Najeb said he did. He added that the two had disclosed to him that they were Jamaluddin’s nominees.

The hearing will continue before Justice Datuk Mohd Firuz Jaffril on Sept 10.