Najib’s lawyer shows fourth Saudi prince letter promising £50m ‘gift’

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A purported letter from an alleged Saudi prince had promised in 2014 to give £50 million as a gift to Datuk Seri Najib Razak, the High Court heard today during the latter’s trial over the misappropriation of RM2.28 billion of 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) funds.

This was the fourth such letter from the purported Saudi royal figure which Najib has produced in this trial to put forward the defence that the billions of ringgit which entered his personal AmIslamic bank accounts were allegedly from Saudi donations.

Najib’s lawyer Wan Aizuddin Wan Mohammed today showed this letter in court, where an individual describing himself as “HRH Prince Saud Abdulaziz Al-Saud” had in a June 1, 2014 letter informed Najib of the planned gift.

Wan Aizuddin read out a portion of this letter in court: “In view of the friendship that we have developed over the years and your new ideas as a modern Islamic leader, in addition to my earlier commitments, I hereby grant you an additional sum of up to Great Britain Pounds Fifty Million (GBP 50,000,000.00) Only and or equivalent in other currencies (“Gift”) which shall be remitted to you and/or via cash and/or bank drafts to you at such times and in such manner as I deem fit either directly from my personal bank account or through my instructed company bank accounts and/or individuals.”

When Wan Aizuddin showed this fourth letter in court, 37th prosecution witness R Uma Devi confirmed that it appeared to be similar as the previous three letters from the purported Saudi prince.

“Looks the same, sounds the same also,” said Uma Devi, who is also the branch manager of AmBank’s Jalan Raja Chulan branch.

Previously, Wan Aizuddin had shown three purported letters from the alleged Saudi individual to Najib, namely a February 1, 2011 letter promising a gift of US$100 million, a November 1, 2011 letter promising a gift of US$375 million, and a March 1, 2013 letter promising a gift of US$800 million. These would come up to a total of US$1.275 billion in the purported promise of money to be given to Najib as presents.

The four letters produced by Wan Aizuddin in court from the purported Saudi royalty had contents that were almost identical except for certain details including the amount and mention of specific bank accounts in the second and third letter, with the first letter signed off by “Saud Abdulaziz AL-Saud”, the second letter and fourth letter signed off by “HRH Prince Saud Abdulaziz Al-Saud”, while the third letter was signed off by “Saud Abdulaziz Al Saud”.

All four letters were careful to say that the donation of hundreds of millions of US dollars and millions of pounds should not be seen as an act of corruption. – MMO