The Malaysian Insight

NAJIB Razak chose not to look where the RM42 million which was deposited into his personal accounts originated from, the Court of Appeal said today.

Judge Abdul Karim Abdul Jalil in upholding the High Court’s decision said while Najib had wilfully chosen not to verify the origins of the money, he had no problem spending it.

“The appellant’s contention that he has justifiable reasons not to suspect anything untoward in the flow of RM42 million into his account is simply flawed,” the judge said in his summary judgment.

“The appellant had deliberately shut his eyes and chose not to verify the origins of the funds, but instead relied wholly on others, while at the same time spending the RM42 million for his own purposes and benefits.”

A three-member bench chaired by Karim delivered the unanimous decision in hybrid proceedings held in person and via Zoom as Najib and his lawyers were under quarantine for being Covid-19 close contacts.

In July last year, High Court judge Mohd Nazlan Ghazali found the former prime minister guilty of seven charges related to abuse of power, breach of trust and money laundering in relation to SRC International, a subsidiary of 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB).

Nazlan sentenced Najib to 12 years in prison and a RM210 million fine. The Court of Appeal upheld this decision today.

Karim said the money trail clearly showed that RM27 million, RM5 million and RM10 million were transferred out of SRC International and into Najib’s personal accounts.

The money passed through Gandingan Mentari Sdn Bhd and Ihsan Perdana Sdn Bhd before landing in Najib’s accounts to make the money trail harder to detect.

“The appellant never raised any complaint with the bank that these funds were wrongfully credited into his accounts.

“He was quite content to receive and utilise the funds to his liking. It has never been shown that the utilisation of the funds had anything to do with SRC or its business,” the judge said.

Among the expenses that Najib spent on was issuing 17 cheques amounting to RM30.8 million.

Between April 25, 2012 and June 19, 2013, he issued six cheques to Kedah Umno that amounted to RM15 million.

He also issued a cheque worth RM240,000 to Vital Spire to run news portal malaysiandigest.com in 2015.

Najib deposited two cheques worth RM9.5 million into a personal bank account belonging his lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah in 2013 and 2014.

The Pekan MP also issued a cheque for RM77,300 to Syadillah Enterprise, which was tasked to construct two water towers and perform maintenance work at his house in Pekan.

Najib also used the SRC funds to pay for luxury jewellery and vacations.

He had charged €750,000 (RM3.2 million) to his credit card to buy jewellery from Swiss-Italian jeweller De Grisogono.

In total, Najib charged close to RM4 million to his credit card.

The balance was spent at a Chanel boutique in Hawaii and the Shangri-La Hotel in Bangkok, Thailand.

All these expenses were revealed in the course of the trial which went on from April 3, 2019 to March 12, 2020. – December 8, 2021.