KUALA LUMPUR: This week, the name of fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho, better known as Jho Low, was mentioned directly for the first time in Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak’s SRC International Sdn Bhd trial, to link his relationship with the former prime minister.
The trial also raised question as to where did the RM42 million in Najib’s account came from as witnesses revealed that they did not know how the money had come into Ihsan Perdana Sdn Bhd’s account and how Najib spent RM3.3 million in just one day in De Grisogono, a Swiss luxury jeweller, in Italy.
Here are some of the witnesses’ testimonies given this week.
Day 37 (July 15)
• Senior vice-president of Ambank in charge of credit card authorisation and fraud management Yeoh Eng Leong revealed that two credit cards belonging to Najib were used to spend RM3.3 million in one day, in De Grisogono, a Swiss luxury jeweller, in Italy on Aug 8, 2014.
• The 47th prosecution witness said RM456,360.51 was spent using the Visa Platinum credit card and another RM2,864,309.54 using the Master Platinum credit card.
• The witness also said that in early January 2015, another RM466,330.11 was spent at Chanel, an exclusive boutique in Honolulu, the United States, using the cards and the cards were also used to pay the amount of RM127,017.46 at Shangri-La Hotel in the Thai capital.
• When cross-examined by Najib’s lawyer Harvinderjit Singh, the witness agreed that according to the credit card statement dated April 2015, the last payment was made by a person named Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil (former CEO of SRC).
• Ambank Manager of Remittance Unit at Wisma Amfisrt, Petaling Jaya, Wedani Senen, who was recalled to testify told the court that RM50 million which was transferred into Najib’s bank account in 2014 was not a ‘donation or a gift’.
• The 24th prosecution witness said the money was remitted by two companies, namely Blackrock Commodities Global Limited from Singapore and Vista Equity International Partners from Seychelles.
• The banker said two of the transactions listed the transfer of money into the former prime minister’s account as a ‘loan’.
• A senior lawyer Mohd Shuhaimi Ismail, told the court that SRC International Sdn Bhd was required to pay RM9.2 billion to the Retirement Fund Incorporated (KWAP) under its Bai Al-Inah financing facility for the RM4 billion loans it obtained in 2011 and 2012.
• Mohd Shuhaimi, a partner at Messrs. Hisham, Sobri & Kadi, the legal firm involved in handling the documentation of the financing between KWAP and SRC, said the amount was the sale price imposed by KWAP on SRC, including the interest of 12 per cent, for both the loans.
Day 38 (July 16)
• Former 1Malaysia People’s Foundation (YR1M) chief executive officer Ung Su Ling, told the High Court that the RM42 million deposited into two bank accounts belonging to Najib by Ihsan Perdana Sdn Bhd (IPSB) in 2014 and 2015 did not belong to the YR1M.
• Ung said she was told by Najib’s former private secretary, Datuk Azlin Alias (now deceased), to instruct former IPSB chief executive officer Datuk Dr Shamsul Anwar Sulaiman to transfer the money into two accounts at the AmIslamic Bank Berhad and she was told that the money was for corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes.
Day 39 (July 17)
• Former group managing director of AmBank Cheah Tek Kuang testified that he met with Jho Low at Najib’s house in Jalan Langgak Duta, here, pertaining to the former prime minister’s request to open bank accounts in Ambank.
• Cheah, who is the 50th prosecution witness, said that in the middle of January 2011, at around 7 pm, he was taken in a car that drove him straight to the personal residence of Najib in Jalan Langgak Duta to discuss the opening of the bank accounts.
• Cheah also told the court that Najib had wanted to open accounts with the bank for the purpose of receiving donations from Saudi Arabia and that he was told that the donations coming in was in hundreds of millions in US dollars.
Day 40 (July 18)
• Former Treasury deputy secretary-general Datuk Fauziah Yaacob testified that SRC which was under the purview of the Minister of Finance Incorporated (MoF Inc) did not have a Finance Ministry’s representative to monitor it as required.
• Fauziah said the ministry monitored companies under the MoF Inc by appointing a representative to the Board of Directors.
Najib, 66, is facing three counts of criminal breach of trust, one count of abusing his position and three counts of money laundering involving SRC International funds amounting to RM42 million.
The hearing before Justice Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali continues on Monday. – Bernama
