Saudi prince’s ‘donation’ letters to be shown to Bank Negara’s Zeti, but not for her to keep.
A former banker told Najib Razak’s 1MDB trial that fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho, also known as Jho Low, had instructed the bank to ensure the contents of four letters, purportedly issued by one “Prince Saud Abdulaziz Al-Saud”, were to remain confidential.
AmBank’s former relationship manager Joanna Yu said that Low had sent her a BlackBerry message (BBM) text on June 23, 2014 ordering that the bank only show the letters to former Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz and ensure that their contents were not made public.
In the letters addressed to Najib between 2011 and 2014, “Prince Saud” is alleged to have said that he wanted to provide funds to the former prime minister for the promotion of Islam.
“(Low) said that it is for (AmBank’s former managing director Cheah Tek Kuang) to show the governor (Zeti) and then take them back.
“Jho also said Zeti should not have a copy but should refer to (Najib) if needed,” said Yu.
Cheah had previously testified that he saw one of the four letters in 2011 and handed over a copy to Zeti’s office.
Yu also told the High Court here that she informed Low via a BBM text message that Najib’s account was overdrawn.
“I was telling Jho that cheques will ‘bounce’ (be dishonoured) if there are no new funds (deposited into the account).
“It was the PM’s account. We would chase (for funds) to ensure cheques were not returned,” she added.
Yu testified that one of Low’s aides, Kee Kok Thiam, subsequently deposited cash into Najib’s accounts sometime in 2014 to replenish them.
Ad hoc prosecutor Gopal Sri Ram then asked Yu if she knew the quantum which Kee deposited.
Yu said that it ran into “hundreds of thousands”.
The hearing continues before Justice Collin Lawrence Sequerah.
Najib is standing trial on 25 charges of abuse of power and money laundering of alleged 1MDB funds of RM2.28 billion deposited into his AmBank accounts between February 2011 and December 2014. – FMT