Tengku Adnan

Datuk Seri Utama Tengku Adnan bin Tengku Mansor (Jawi: تڠكو عدنان بن تڠكو منصور; born 20 December 1950) is a Malaysian politician who served as Minister of Federal Territories, Minister of Tourism and Minister in the Prime Minister's Department in the Barisan Nasional (BN) administration under former Prime Ministers Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and Najib Razak from November 2002 to the collapse of the BN administration in May 2018, Member of Parliament (MP) for Putrajaya from March 2004 to November 2022.

He is a member of the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), a component party of the BN coalition.

Adnan joined politics in the early 1980s.

He became Treasurer of the UMNO Youth wing in 1988.

He was elected to the UMNO Supreme Council in 1993 but lost the position in 1996.

He was appointed as Federal Territory liaison chairman in June 2000.

On 29 November 2001, he was appointed the Chairman of the Federal Territory Barisan Nasional.

In 2003, he was appointed the Chief of the Putrajaya UMNO, and later he won the position again uncontested in the party election in June 2004.

In September 2004, he was successful in a bid for an UMNO Supreme Council seat.

Adnan won the Parliamentary seat of Putrajaya in the March 2004 general election by defeating Abdul Rahman Othman of Parti Keadilan Rakyat (KeADILan).

Adnan was appointed as the Tourism Minister, replacing Datuk Dr. Leo Michael Toyad, on 14 February 2006.

He was dropped from the cabinet following the March 2008 general election, where the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition received a serious drubbing at the polls.

He also served as Secretary-General of UMNO from March 2009 to June 2018.

After his victory for third time in 2013 general election, Adnan has returned to the cabinet and appointed as Minister of the Federal Territories.

He admitted receiving a RM2 million cheque from Chai for the expense of the Barisan Nasional election campaign on 14 June 2016.

But, he did not report this to the party hierarchy as the money has nothing to do with Umno HQ.

He has served as the Treasurer-General of UMNO since June 2018.

In 2018, he was charged with corruption for allegedly accepting bribe by a businessman, which he denied.

In the 2018 general election, Adnan was reelected to the Parliament.

However, he lost his cabinet post as BN was relegated to opposition while the federal government was taken over by Pakatan Harapan (PH).

On 15 November 2018, Tengku Adnan pleaded not guilty for accepting RM2 million from Aset Kayamas director Chai Kin Kong via cheque deposited to Tadmansori Holding which Tengku Adnan had interests in.

He was allowed bail of RM1 million.

On 2 July 2019, the trial began.

23 witnesses called including Chai and former Kuala Lumpur City Hall mayors, Ahmad Phesal Talib and Mohd Amin Nordin.

On 17 July 2019, Chai took out RM2 million receipt from his wallet which he said is evidence of payment by Umno, to show the sum is for political donation.

“Yes, it is in my pocket now” – he said when asked by lead counsel Tan Hock Chuan if he kept any such document.

On 14 October 2019, Tengku Adnan ordered by the High Court to enter his defence on the corruption charges against him.

In 2020, he was convicted and sentenced to jail.

The conviction was overturned on appeal in 2021.

Born in Malacca, Malaysia, Adnan obtained a Diploma in Business Administration from Mara Technology Institute (Institut Teknologi Mara, ITM), which is now known as Universiti Teknologi MARA (Universiti Teknologi Mara, UiTM), and a Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) from the University of Southern California.

Adnan held important positions in the corporate sector, such as Director and Chairman of Far East Asset (FEA) and Chairman of UNZA Holdings Bhd.

On 17 January and 5 March 2020, Tengku Adnan’s defence proceedings were held for two days.

On 30 June 2020, Tengku Adnan was the first defence witness and the defence closed its case after calling four witnesses.

On 21 December 2020, Judge Mohamed Zaini Mazlan said defence failed to challenge evidence brought by the prosecution.

Tengku Adnan found guilty for receiving RM2 million of graft from Chai.

He was sentenced to jail, fined RM2 million.

On 13 January 2021, Tengku Adnan was found guilty of a RM2 million graft charge towards the year-end, but was discharged on a charge involving RM1 million only a fortnight earlier.

On 25 January 2021, Tengku Adnan filed an appeal on 21 December last year against his conviction.

On 22 April 2021, the Court of Appeal is hearing an appeal by Tengku Adnan against his conviction for receiving RM2 million in kickbacks from Chai Kin Kong.

Chai had testified that the funds were a political donation, but the High Court judge did not accept this.