DEBUNKED

Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 61

December 10, 2019

1481

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Najib finishes reading his witness statement – a total 243 pages containing 317 Q&A.

Najib’s claims:

Jho Low took steps to hide irregularities
Low in cahoots with Faisal to manipulate SRC funds
Yayasan Rakyat 1Malaysia CEO Ung Su Ling is Low’s accomplice
Ihsan Perdana MD Shamsul deceived by Ung and Dennis See into transferring monies from the company to Najib’s accounts

9am: Accused Najib Abdul Razak enters the High Court and takes a seat at the front row of the public gallery to wait for proceedings to begin.

9.24am: Former prime minister Najib enters the witness stand to resume examination-in-chief, as proceedings begin before Kuala Lumpur High Court judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali.

9.30am: The court hears from Najib that he opened three new bank accounts in 2013 to better manage contributions as several parties were expected to channel donations through him.

According to Najib, these parties were interested to contribute after they realised about his contributions for welfare through political, social and CSR programmes from 2011 to 2013.

Najib agrees he signed the bank forms to open the accounts. He says his then-chief private secretary Azlin Alias gave him the forms.

The three accounts end in the numbers 880, 906 and 898.

Najib says he signed the forms sometime in July 2013.

He testifies that another account which had been opened earlier, ending 694, was closed as he wanted to return a huge sum of unutilised donations to its donor.

9.35am: While reading out from his witness statement, Najib says he was shocked that the bank would deal with Jho Low despite he (Low) never been given the authority to deal with the three accounts.

Najib is answering a question in the witness statement on whether he communicated with Low over the opening of the three accounts. This is in relation to AmBank’s former relationship manager Joanna Yu’s testimony that she informed Low over the opening of the three accounts linked to Najib.

Najib also denies that he had ever given the order for the names of the three accounts be the following: 1MY for account 880, MY for account 906, and Y1MY for account 898.

This is in relation to Yu’s testimony that Low directed her to get approval to use the above three names for the new accounts linked to Najib.

On whether Najib knew that Joanna Yu, Daniel Lee and Krystal Yap were re-appointed as the relationship managers for accounts 880, 906 and 898, he says, “No. I’ve never dealt with these individuals and was never told that they had a role in managing my accounts.”

The three accounts were allegedly involved in the transfer of RM42 million of SRC’s monies into Najib’s account.

9.46am: Najib says he was informed by Azlin that authorisation was given to former 1MDB CEO Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil to handle his banking accounts. He says he signed several authorisation forms to the effect. The forms were given to him by Azlin.

9.54am: Najib testifies that he believed he had “budi bicara mutlak” (absolute discretion) to deal with monies in his three AmBank accounts as a confirming letter from then Saudi ruler, King Abdullah, and information on the donations had been given to Bank Negara.

While reading out from his witness statement, Najib says this in relation to the use of monies in the 898, 906 and 880 accounts.

Najib says that around 2014, he was shown a letter dated June 1, that year, from a representative of King Abdullah like three similar past letters in relation to donations into Najib’s accounts.

“I was made to understand that the existence of the donations and the letter had been reported to the bank, BNM and (then BNM governor) Zeti directly.

“This formed the basis of my belief that the amount in my new account was funds that I could use on my absolute discretion,” he says.

9.55am: Najib says he was aware that the balance in his old account 694 was transferred to his new account.

He says this was done after Tanore’s funds were returned.

10am: Najib says he had given the responsibility to handle all three of his new bank accounts opened with AmBank in 2013 to Azlin.

According to him, he did not realise then that 10 cheque books he received were only for two of the accounts.

“When I was given these cheque books by Azlin, he told me that these were for the new accounts that I opened.

“I did not realise, at that time, that there were no cheque books for the other account.

“Once more, I would like to stress that I had surrendered the management of my accounts to Azlin, whom I trusted.

“The cheques were cashed by me after Azlin advised me whether the accounts had funds in them. I do not remember if Azlin ever mentioned that there was no cheque book for one of the accounts,” Najib says.

Defence lawyer Wan Aizuddin Aizuddin: On August 27, 2013, Jho Low informed Joanna that you had begun writing cheques from your new account. There is a cheque number 00151 dated August 24, 2013 for RM5 Million to Yayasan Permata Malaysia issued from account 898, and check number 0052 dated August 26, 2013 for RM268k to Jakel Trading. How did Jho Low come to know you had started writing cheques from your new accounts?

Najib: I’m not sure. I didn’t contact Jho Low regarding the cheques I issued from my new accounts. The only one I informed was Datuk Azlin Alias, who probably told Faisal.

I can only assume that Jho Low was in contact with one of them.

In any case, I had not allowed them to release my banking details to Jho Low.

10.10am: Najib claims that he had never seen bank statements for the three accounts he opened with AmBank in 2013.

He testifies that he only knew during the trial that Jho Low had allegedly taken steps to prevent him from getting the statements.

He also denies ever authorising any electronic transfers of funds from any of the accounts.

“Not in my knowledge. I would have never done so as my intention was only to use the funds as per cheques that I issued,” he says.

10.22am: The High Court hears from Najib that was not aware that AmBank had issued a money laundering red flag against the transactions in his account.

The accused says this in relation to a question in his prepared witness statement whether he was aware that the bank issued a warning under Amla (Anti Money Laundering Act) against the transfer of RM12 million in stages into his three accounts 880, 906 and 898.

Previously, Joanna Yu testified for the prosecution that in an attempt to regularise the three accounts, Jho Low had caused RM12 million to be transferred to the accounts.

“No, not at all. I would not have let this happen. At that time, I was prime minister and also a well-known political figure in the country.

“If the news was to be revealed that the bank accounts registered under my name had been given a warning by BNM (Bank Negara Malaysia) for the transfer of RM12 million, it would have definitely been used by the opposition in an effort to damage my reputation,” says Najib.

“I humbly ask this honourable court to see this act as would not be a rational one. I did not know about this incident. If I had known about this, I would have immediately checked the transactions in the new accounts as this would show I was not informed about the true situation,” Najib adds.

10.39am: Aizuddin tells Najib the court has heard and seen the evidence showing the new account was constantly overdrawn, and that each time Yu reported that to Low, he would immediately provide the funds to keep the account open.

Aizuddin: Jho Low also took various steps to ensure that the bank did not decline any cheques. Jho Low seems to have caused Nik Faisal to sign several letters to the bank in the process to get some time to let him put in the funds. Is Datuk Seri aware of this?

Najib: Not at all. I only found out about this when the evidence was presented to the court. I was surprised.

I never gave permission to Datuk Azlin, Nik Faisal or Jho Low to take such action. I was also never told about my accounts being in an overdrawn state.

10.35am: Najib testifies that Azlin had in 2014 informed him about additional donations from King Abdullah.

He was also shown a letter dated June 1, 2014, as proof of the contribution by the Saudi king.

Najib says this when answering a question from his lawyer Rahmat Hazlan on six banking transactions in 2014, where about of RM49 million was transferred in six transactions into Najib’s 880 account, purportedly under Jho Low’s orders.

“I did not know the details (of these transactions). As I have said, I was informed by Datuk Azlin in 2014 that there were foreign currency transfers into my accounts, said to be further donations from King Abdullah.

“I was shown a letter dated June 1, 2014, as proof and was informed that the same letter had been given to the bank.

“I was also made to understand that the transfers were informed to Bank Negara Malaysia as donations from King Abdullah, where AmBank had brought the letter to the attention of Tan Sri Zeti (then governor of Bank Negara),” he says.

10.45am: The court hears from Najib that he had no knowledge whatsoever about RM27 million that went into his two bank accounts in July 2014 had originated from SRC.

He also tells the court that it doesn’t make sense for him to willingly receive money that originated from a company that belonged to the Minister of Finance Incorporated into his personal bank accounts.

“No one had reported this matter to me. It was also something obvious that I was not informed of the truth on the origin of the funds in my new accounts.

“If I had known that the monies came from SRC, I would not have accepted them. Looking at the surrounding circumstances, it is something that is insane and illogical for me to agree willingly to receive funds that belong to MOF Inc company into my personal accounts,” Najib says.

10.53am: Court goes for a short break.

11.22am: Najib resumes his testimony.

11.30am: Najib denies having any knowledge of SRC funds being transferred to his bank accounts in 2014.

He tells the court that he did not give any order, nor cause anyone to make such transactions to transfer monies from SRC to Ihsan Perdana through Gandingan Mentari Sdn Bhd.

“I cannot explain how the transfers of these funds were ordered. I do not have any knowledge about the transfer of fund from SRC to IPSB and then to my accounts.

“I only learned about the details of the transactions around July 2015 when the matter was sensationalised by the Sarawak Report,” he says.

11.36am: Najib testifies he was not aware of a document purportedly signed by him authorising interbank transfers as he was on a personal visit to Hawaii with his family and golfing with then US president Barack Obama.

Najib says this against a testimony previously heard by the High Court that Joanna Yu had a letter of directive that was purportedly signed by Najib to allow the transfers of RM27 million from account 880 to Permai Binaraya Sdn Bhd (PBSB) and RM5 million from Account 906 to Putra Perdana Construction (PPC) on Dec 24, 2014.

“At or around Dec 24, 2014, I was in Honolulu in transit to Kuala Lumpur. I was in Honolulu as part of a personal trip with my family, where at the same time, the golfing session was arranged with the (US) president at the time, Barack Obama.

“The meeting and golfing session with the president was reportedly widely by the media. After I was informed of a terrible flood that hit the east coast (of Malaysia at the time), I quickly made arrangements to come back to Malaysia.

“At Kota Baru, I was given a briefing about efforts to tackle the floods and spent my time there. This was widely reported by the media.

“Therefore, I never ever seen or signed the P277 document (court exhibit on the letter purportedly signed by Najib to allow the transfers) that is said to have been executed on Dec 24, 2014,” Najib says.

12.15pm: Ahmad Zahid Hamidi takes a seat at the front row of the public gallery.

12.20pm: The court hears from Najib that he did not excuse himself from Cabinet meetings that discussed matters related to SRC as he did not have any personal interest in the company.

This was different than several instances when the Cabinet was discussing matters related to companies where his family members are involved.

“Before this, I have declared having a personal interest and excused myself from Cabinet meetings as required under the code of ethics. The first example was when the Cabinet was making decisions related to CIMB when my brother Nazir Abdul Razak was its chairperson.

“Another example was when (the Cabinet was making) decisions related to MRCB when my brother Johari Abdul Razak was its director in 2015.

“I would declare my interest and excuse myself from the Cabinet decisions,” he testifies.

Najib also claims that in his 33 years of experience in the Cabinet, he had never seen any minister in charge of the Treasury having excused themselves from Cabinet decision makings on any companies owned by the Minister of Finance Incorporated as they were there on formal interests instead of personal.

“It had never come to my mind that there are conflicts and such. MoF Inc, as a whole, owns hundreds of companies, and when it comes to Cabinet meetings, it was never recorded in the history of the Cabinet that the Finance Minister or Finance Minister 2 excusing themselves,” he says.

12.25pm: Najib says he has never abused his position as a civil servant in respect of the provisions of two government guarantees.

He says his action in relation to the two government guarantees, KWAP loans to SRC and other matters have been done in the interest of the Malaysian government and the Ministry of Finance.

Other than that, there is no documentary evidence or anything, as well as the testimony of the witnesses which indicate the transfer from SRC was done at my order.

Najib testifies that he wished to avoid using public money when spending RM3.28 million at the De Grisogono jeweller in Sardinia, Italy, in 2014.

He tells the High Court this in light of the existence of one of his AmBank accounts which contained funds he believed he had absolute discretion to use.

Najib claims that the money spent at De Grisogono was to buy jewellery for the wife of Sheikh Ahmad, who was then prime minister of Qatar, in order to further diplomatic ties between Malaysia and the middle eastern country.

Aizuddin: The credit card statement shows that RM3,282,734.16 (EUR763,500.00) was charged at a famous Italian jewellery shop De Grisogono in Sardinia, Italy on August 8, 2014. Can you explain the purpose of this purchase?

Najib: I was in Sardinia, Italy for a private vacation with my family. There I met Sheikh Ahmed bin Jassim Al Thani, a Qatari businessman, politician and a royal family member of Al Thani.

Sheikh Ahmad was then prime minister of Qatar. It is something of a coincidence and we plan to meet up at Sardinia.

De Grisigono is a manufacturer of luxury jewellery and watches in Italy. The purchase I made there in August 2014 is related to jewellery that has been purchased as a gift to Sheikh Ahmad’s wife.

“I did not want to use public funds for the purchase of the gift, and I thought that since the account (AmBank) already existed, it is proper to use this account in comparison to public funds, on my honest belief (kepercayaan saya yang telus) that the funds in the account could be spent on my absolute discretion and that it would benefit Malaysia,” he says.

12.36pm: Najib reiterates his belief that he was justified in using money in his account for the credit card spending of US$130,625 (RM466,330.11) at Chanel, Honolulu, in Dec 2014 and RM127,017.46 for a hotel stay at Shangri-La, Bangkok, in January 2015.

On the amount spent in Honolulu, he says it was a birthday gift for his wife Rosmah Mansor and the hotel stay at Bangkok was for his meeting with Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha to discuss how the Thai government could help Malaysia tackle its flood problem.

The payment at the Shangri-La Hotel included his stay as well for his support staff who accompanied him.

12.48pm: Najib says the monies he spent on political activities were not for his personal benefits.

According to him, funds distribution for political purposes were not made to buy support.

He claims that recipients were also not picked based on such basis.

“It is the duty of every Umno president and BN chairperson to secure funds for the party. This had been done by each and every Umno president and BN chairperson before me.

“Overall, the disbursement is based on needs. In other words, they (the recipients) would come to me and inform that they need funding for politics or their activities.

“I did not spend the funds to gain support or openly buy votes. These expenditures are especially for the political communities and welfare activities,” Najib says.

“As I have stated, I am of the view that I had the right to use the funds if I felt needed. Furthermore, I was quite clear on the spending,” Najib says, adding that the total spending only showed that his whole personal spending amounted to 0.4 percent of the funds in his account.

Najib says this on the breakdown of the spending charged to his credit card from August 2013 to March 2015.

12.53pm: The court hears from Najib that he decided to close his three AmBank accounts in 2015 as he was not expecting further donations.

Asked by his lawyer why he thought so, Najib says he believed that donations from the Saudi royal family would stop with the death of King Abdullah in January that year as the contributions were personally made by the king.

12.55pm: Proceedings break for lunch.

2.38pm: Proceedings resume after lunch break, with Najib continuing his testimony.

2.40pm: The court hears Najib’s take on steps allegedly taken by Jho Low to ensure cheques issued by Najib would not bounce.

Answering his lawyer’s question, Najib says he believes that Low had taken steps to activate resources and deposit funds into his (Najib) accounts to prevent him from being suspicious and start asking questions.

“…This would make me find out what really happened, which I had been misrepresented, over the funds in my accounts.

“This is especially with efforts taken to ensure that banking statements were also hidden from me, for the same reason,” he says.

Najib claims that any investigation would uncover other things as well, which is now evident to him now, including the fact that Low and Faisal had been manipulating SRC funds, and they had allegedly been cheating other SRC directors as well.

2.48pm: Asked if he trusted Azlin, Najib says Azlin is a person with honour and integrity in all matters. He says Azlin was tricked by Low and Faisal.

He says Azlin was not informed about the true state of Najib’s accounts.

2.45pm: Najib also tells the High Court that Yayasan Rakyat 1Malaysia CEO Ung Su Ling was an accomplice of Jho Low.

Aizuddin: Ung Su Ling explained that she was directed by Azlin for IPSB to (transfer money) into your account in December 2014 and February 2015. What do you say to this?

Najib: I believe Ung Su Ling didn’t tell the truth. Ung Su Ling is Jho Low’s ally and carried out his instructions. Ung Su Ling has nothing to support her claims that Azlin was certainly involved in this transaction.

Najib adds that he never spoke to Jho Low about matters related to his bank account, cheques and credit card expenses.

3.04pm: On August 9, 2014, Jho Low sent Joanna Yu the following message: “From M – Great holiday here. All went well. Need u to speak to Cheah to clear AmBank Visa for €1.2M for u know what purchase. Can u do it.”

On August 11 the same year, Yu said there was a transaction in euro on Najib’s credit card, and the amount was deducted.

Aizuddin asks if Najib sent the message to Low.

Najib: No, I didn’t. As stated above, on August 8, 2014, I was charged €763,500 on the card at De Grisogono in Italy. I do not recall any transactions that were deducted that day. There was no further transaction after August 8, 2014. I believe the credit card statement will prove this.

On August 13, 2014, Low sent Yu the following message: “Please ensure it works in full today. He is planning to sign euro in Italy today. Now 7am here.”

Najib, asked if he used his credit card on August 13, 2014, denies doing so.

3.05pm: Najib says that he believed Ihsan Perdana Sdn Bhd managing director Shamsul Anuar Sulaiman was deceived into transferring monies from the company to Najib’s accounts.

Najib said he had met Shamsul in July 2015 after the latter was released from remand detention.

Shamsul had then told Najib that he transferred the funds under orders of Yayasan Rakyat 1Malaysia executives Ung Su Ling and Dennis See, not knowing that the destination accounts belonged to Najib.

Both Ung and See had also allegedly refused to reveal to Shamsul from who the orders for the transfer originated and told Shamsul that the transfers were for corporate social responsibility.

“Dr Shamsul apologised to me, but I could not say that he is to be fully blamed.

“He was deceived by Ung Su Ling and Dennis See,” Najib testifies.

Asked if he met Ung later, Najib says: Yes. This was after my meeting with Shamsul. I think it was a year later, but I can’t be sure. She told me she didn’t know the source of the funds. She told me Azlin had informed her that the funds would be transferred to IPSB, and he would transfer the money to accounts that did not have the names of any individual.

When she doesn’t know where the money is coming from and doesn’t know the account holder’s identity, she thinks it is for CSR purposes, he adds.

3.20pm: Najib testifies that until today, he is still holding on to then attorney-general Apandi Ali’s media statement that absolved him of any wrongdoing in relation to the SRC matter.

He was reading out his answer from a prepared witness statement to a question contained in the said statement, as to why he did not lodge a police report in concerning a meeting with Shamsul and Ung.

Najib said he did not make a police report, or made any statement in 2015, on the issue of the RM42 million transferred into his account as he did not wish to disturb then-ongoing investigation into the matter by the Attorney-General’s Chambers, MACC, Bank Negara and the police’s joint task force.

“Finally, in 2016, when the attorney-general (Apandi) at the time made a statement that investigation has been done and reported to the AGC that there is no statement in regards to knowledge of wrongdoing against me (IDD770 court exhibit on the media statement by Apandi).

3.30pm: Najib’s defence team will next call on Apandi to testify, defence counsel Aizuddin tells the High Court.

The court is informed about this following a disagreement between the defence and the prosecution over the defence’s application for the court to mark Apandi’s media statement in 2016 as an exhibit.

The 2016 press statement was where Apandi declared Najib to be absolved of wrongdoing in the SRC International issue.

Aizuddin wanted to mark the press statement as an exhibit while DPP V Sithambaram said that it should be not be marked as so, as the maker of the document was not in court to attest to the veracity of the document.

Aizuddin then informs the court that the defence will call Apandi to attest to the press statement.

In the report submitted to the Attorney-General’s Chambers, Najib points out the following:

There is no evidence to show that he abused his position during the cabinet meeting that approved the government guarantee for a RM4 billion loan to SRC International from KWAP;
The evidence shows that the loan approval process by KWAP and the loan guarantee approval by the cabinet were properly done;
There is no evidence to show that Najib solicited or was promised any gratification from any party either before, during or after the cabinet decision was made;
The evidence, as a whole, does not disclose any conflict of interest on the part of Najib; and,
MACC itself admitted that based on its investigation, there is no evidence from the witnesses that could show that Najib committed any act of corruption.

Aizuddin: What is SRC International’s plan (with regards to) fulfilling its obligations to KWAP?

Najib: In my understanding, SRC International is still in discussions with Swiss authorities. It will also liquidate its assets to enable it to pay off debts to both KWAP and MoF. (SRC International) have given their commitment to do this.

3.56pm: Najib finishes reading his witness statement, which is of a total 243 pages containing 317 questions and answers. He signs the statement.

4.06pm: Lead defence counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah tells the court that the defence had written a letter requesting Nazlan’s permission for a document expert to verify certain exhibits submitted by both the defence and prosecution.

If the judge agrees to this, he says, the expert, from Australia, will fly in on Wednesday.

4.15pm: Ad hoc prosecutor V Sithambaram says the defence will need to put in a formal request.

Shafee and defence lawyer Harvinderjit Singh tell Nazlan that the process of submitting an official request is time-consuming, and they want to get it done as soon as possible so as to not disturb the trial dates next month.

If approval is given, the expert could produce his report “probably in January”, allowing the trial to proceed as planned, says Shafee.

4.20pm: The prosecution and defence argue about having the expert verify documents in the case.

Harvinderjit submits that the examination is necessary because there were issues previously raised by the defence over the authenticity of certain documents purportedly signed by Najib, among others.

Sithambaram counters that a formal application is required because the defence should have raised the matter much earlier during the prosecution stage of the trial.

He says it will seriously prejudice the prosecution and labels the defence’s attempt as an ambush, which causes both him and Harvinderjit to go into a near shouting match with each other before Nazlan calms down the situation.

Nazlan orders the defence to submit a formal application over their bid for an Australian handwriting expert to examine the court document exhibits previously tendered by the prosecution, among others.

Harvinderjit then informs the court that the defence will make a formal application by the end of the week.

4.22pm: Court adjourns for the day. The trial continues at 9am on Tuesday.

Earlier reports:

Dec 9, RM500K Birthday Watch for Rosmah, RM3.3M Jewellery Gift for Ex-Qatar PM’s Wife

Dec 5, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 60

Dec 3, Najb’s SRC Trial: Day 59

Dec 3, Najib’s Day in Court

Aug 27, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 58

Aug 23, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 57

Aug 22, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 56

Aug 20, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 55

Aug 19, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 54