Former bank manager turned down Jho Low’s offer of a high-paying job in SRC.
8.59am: Former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak enters the court and takes a seat at the front row of the public gallery.
Also seen in court awaiting the beginning of proceedings are Attorney-General Tommy Thomas and DPPs, as well as Najib’s defence counsel Harvinderjit Singh and other defence lawyers.
9.13am: Najib enters the dock as proceedings begin.
9.15am: The defence begins day six of former AmBank customer relationship manager Joanna Yu’s cross-examination.
After having sifted through Putra Perdana Berhad’s transactions, they are going through SRC International Sdn Bhd transactions.
9.31am: They’re going through how a branch makes transactions and opens accounts.
9.34am: “She is not explaining, acting ignorant, evasive,” says Harvinderjit during his cross-examination of Yu.
Harvinderjit’s line of questioning on Yu over AmBank documents seized by MACC had elicited objection from deputy public prosecutor V Sithambaram.
“Let her finish, she is trying to explain,” Sithambaram says.
Kuala Lumpur High Court judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali then requests that the witness be allowed to answer.
10.02am: Harvinderjit asks Yu to point out specifically where she dealt with Nik Faisal with regards to SRC International.
10.04am: After being rigorously questioned, Yu says she dealt with Terence Geh (former 1MDB executive director of finance) and Low for SRC matters.
10.05am: The court hears from Yu that Low may have control over SRC’s banking transactions.
In her testimony under cross-examination by the defence, Yu agrees to a suggestion that former SRC director Terence Geh was a subordinate to Low.
10.14am: Low was referred to as the “fatty one” by 1MDB executive finance director Geh.
Yu testifies that Geh referred to Low as such during a conversation with Geh on Nov 7, 2013.
10.15am: Harvinderjit reads out a chat between Low and Yu, whereby Low asked her if she knew anyone who was available to hire for the chief financial officer position at SRC.
Yu had replied that she would let him know if she knew of anyone.
10.20am: Yu says Low made overtures to hire her and her team, including Daniel Lee.
“He wanted to hire our whole team but we refused,” she says.
Harvinderjit: You mean he made you offers to join SRC? Lucrative? RM60,000 per month?
Yu: Yes, but we did not want to work with them.
11.30am: Lead defence counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah says an application will be filed on Monday to strike out the prosecution’s bid to compel Najib to apologise over two Facebook posts deemed sub judice.
11.31am: Judge Nazlan allows an application from the prosecution to start proceedings at 2pm rather than 9am on Monday.
On that day, the Court of Appeal will hear the prosecution’s appeal against Kuala Lumpur High Court judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah’s insistence on proceeding with Najib’s RM2.28 billion 1MDB trial on Aug 19.
Sequerah had declined to postpone the 1MDB trial, despite the high probability that the present case will not be completed by that date.
11.36am: Harvinderjit has been going through chat logs between Yu and Faisal with regard to SRC.
11.51am: Harvinderjit asks Yu about Low’s modus operandi.
Harvinderjit: All these Low-run ventures, they do first, then think later?
Yu: Yes.
12.30pm: Joanna Yu agrees that Low was among those who scrambled to arrange for funds to be transferred into Najib’s bank account whenever she told them it was overdrawn.
Harvinderjit: You told them, then Low and his cohorts scramble. The starting point is you telling Low that the account was overdrawn.
Yu: Yes.
Harvinderjit is referring to chat logs of her conversation with Low on Feb 5, 2015, on an attempt to transfer money into Najib’s AmBank account ending with ‘880’ as it was overdrawn.
These chat logs purportedly show Low’s involvement in getting RM5 million transferred from SRC to Gandingan Mentari, then to Ihsan Perdana before ending up in the ‘880’ account.
12.32pm: Harvinderjit picks out an instance where Yu raises the concerns to Low that Najib’s accounts are overdrawn.
Low responded and instructed her to tell Geh to move funds from SRC into Najib’s account after the latter issued a cheque for RM3.5 million.
Harvinderjit suggests that Geh, Low and gang scrambled at the last minute to replenish funds without any thought process.
1.08pm: Court adjourns for lunch.
2.41pm: Court resumes with Harvinderjit continuing his cross-examination of Yu.
2.46pm: Harvinderjit is going through transactions in Najib’s accounts that led to them to be overdrawn.
3.05pm: Low was “calling the shots” in the transfer of RM10 million from SRC’s subsidiary Gandingan Mentari to Ihsan Perdana, in order to go into Najib’s AmBank account ending with the number ‘880’ in Feb 2015.
Yu agrees with Harvinderjit that Low and others such as Terence Geh and Ung Su Ling made the arrangement.
Harvinderjit: What we can reflect, Jho Low was calling the shots, with Ung Su Ling working in tandem. They arrange RM10 million out of Gandingan Mentari and put in Ihsan Perdana, to transfer to the ‘880’ account?
Yu: Yes.
Ung is former Yayasan Rakyat 1Malaysia CEO.
3.30pm: Yu agrees that Low arranged an RM10 million transfer from Ihsan Perdana to Najib’s AmBank account to prevent previously issued cheques from bouncing.
The 54th witness agrees with Harvinderjit that the movement of funds was not to ensure future cheques would not bounce.
Harvinderjit: The money was to regularise (Najib’s account ending with the number ‘880’) for cheques already issued, including the (RM3.5 million) cheque to (law firm) Hafarizam (Wan & Aisha Mubarak)?
Yu: That and several others that came after.
Harvinderjit: The money was not to clear future cheques but cheques already issued?
Yu: Yes.
The court previously heard that several cheques were made out from Najib’s current account, among them a cheque of RM3.5 million to the law firm issued on Jan 21, 2015.
3.57pm: Yu agrees that Low used the term “Eagle 27” to refer to a transfer of RM27 million from SRC and finally to Najib’s AmBank current account ending with the number ‘880’.
She agrees to this following a question by Harvinderjit in regard to an RM27 million transfer from Permai Binaraya to Najib’s ‘880’ account on July 8, 2014.
Harvinderjit was referring to a chat log of her messages with Low on that date regarding the transfer.
Harvinderjit: Eagle 27, (stands) for RM27 million transferred from Permai Binaraya to the ‘880’ account?
Yu: Yes.
Harvinderjit: The RM27 million was from Permai Binaraya’s Maybank account to the ‘880’ account, and that originated from Putra Perdana Construction, which itself originated from the RM35 million that Terence Geh took out of SRC on July 8, 2014?
Yu: Yes.
In their chats, Low tells Yu not to ask where the money came from.
Harvinderjit suggests that Low had convinced her that it’s a donation from royalty. Yu agrees to this suggestion.
4.40pm: Low queried Yu on Bank Negara approval, prior to the transfer of RM105 million from SRC to Putra Perdana Construction (PPC) on July 14, 2014.
Yu agrees with Harvinderjit on the message queries by Low to her prior to the transfer.
Harvinderjit: RM105 million (transferred) on July 14 (2014). But on July 9, Jho Low messaged you on whether this needed Bank Negara approval (among others). That line of inquiry, before the RM105 million was transferred from SRC to PPC, you received queries from Jho Low intending to take RM105 million from SRC and convert into US dollars and send out?
Yu: Yes.
She also agrees that based on chat logs, Low had also asked her whether splitting the money into two portions would avoid the need to report to Bank Negara.
5pm: Court adjourns till Monday.
Earlier reports:
July 31, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 46
July 29, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 45
July 25, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 44
July 24, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 43 Vacated
July 23, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 42
July 22, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 41
July 18, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 40
July 17, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 39
July 16, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 38
July 15, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 37
July 11, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 36
July 10, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 35
July 9, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 34
July 8, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 33
July 3, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 32
July 3, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 31
July 1, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 30
June 20, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 29
June 19, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 28
June 18, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 27
June 17, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 26
June 14, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 25
June 13, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 24
June 12, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 23
June 11, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 22
June 10, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 21
May 28, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 20
May 27, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 19
May 15, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 18
May 14, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 17
May 9, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 16
May 8, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 15
May 7, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 14
May 7, Najib Fails in Second Bid to Remove Sri Ram as 1MDB Lead Prosecutor
May 7, Najib Signed Guarantee Letter for RM2B KWAP Loan to SRC, KWAP Rules Breached
May 6, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 13
May 2, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 12
May 2, RM1M Golden Handshake in Final Month as PM for Najib
Apr 30, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 11
Apr 29, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 10
Apr 29, Court Throws Out Najib’s Application to Strike Out 7 SRC Charges, Trial to Go On
Apr 25, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day Nine
Apr 24, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day Eight
Apr 24, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day Seven
Apr 22, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day Six
Apr 18, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day Five
Apr 17, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day Four
Apr 16, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day Three
Apr 15, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day Two
Apr 3, Najib Trial: Day One