The Malaysian Insight

A TOTAL of US$61 million and £9.46 million were transferred into former prime minister Najib Razak’s private account in AmBank between 2013 and 2014, a senior bank official told the court in the ongoing 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) trial today.

Wedani Senen, AmBank’s SWIFT unit manager, told the Kuala Lumpur High Court that all the funds were channelled through seven different transactions to two accounts ending 880 and 694 belonging to the Pekan lawmaker.

The trial’s 29th witness, Wedani said US$61 million was transferred from Tanore Finance Corp through Falcon Private Bank Ltd Singapore to Najib’s account ending with 694 on March 25, 2013.

Through transfers from Blackrock Commodities (Global) Limited and Vista Equity International Partners, Najib received £9.4 million (RM49.9 million at the material time) in between June and December 2014.

Both Vista Equity and Blackrock are shell companies owned and controlled by Eric Tan, a trusted associate of fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho, better known as Jho Low.

Blackrock Commodities (Global) Limited, a company controlled by businessman Low Taek Jho’s associate sent £750,000 via DBS Bank Ltd Singapore to Najib’s 880 on June 23, 2014.

Wedani said another five transactions, made in sterling pounds, originated from Vista Equity and ended in Najib’s 880 account in 2014.

Vista Equity via Amicorp Bank and Trust ltd Barbados transferred £5.570 million on October 10, £694,342.62 on November 24, £2,216.01 on November 24, £995,000 on December 15 and £1.26 million on December 18.

Wedani also confirmed Rosliza Ishak’s testimony last week that she had converted £9.46 million to ringgit in 2014 into Najib’s account without knowing it belonged to him.

Rosliza, who was the then senior manager at the FX Sales Department, said she did the conversion after receiving instructions from Joanna Yu Ging Ping, the customer relations manager at AmBank.

Besides the incoming transactions, Wedani also testified that there was one outgoing transaction from Najib’s 694 account to Tanore.

Through an instruction to Head Ambank Group Treasury on August 21, 2013, Najib instructed the bank to transfer US$620.01 million to Tanore’s bank in Falcon Private Bank Ltd Singapore.

AmBank issued the SWIFT instruction on August 26, 2013 to transfer the money, which went through JP Morgan and Chase before ending up in Falcon.

Last week, Wedani told the court that close to US$670 million (RM2.95 billion) was transferred to Najib’s personal bank account in a span of three years.

She said US$20 million came from an individual known as Prince Faisal Turkey Bandar Al Saud in two different transactions dated February 24, 2011, and June 14, 2011.

Two more transactions of close to US$30 million were made from Blackstone Asia Real Estate Partners Limited, a shell company owned and controlled by one Eric Tan.

A total of close to US$5 million and US$25 million were transferred to Najib’s 694 account on October 30, 2012, and November 19, 2012, respectively.

She also said that US$620 million was transferred by Tanore Finance Corporation to the Pekan MP’s personal account on March 22, 2013.

In his opening statement, lead public prosecutor Gopal Sri Ram said that the former prime minister had employed an “elaborate charade” to divert hundreds of millions of dollars to his personal bank account.

He said that Najib had used his position as chairman of the state-owned 1MDB board of advisers, prime minister, and finance minister “to exert influence over the board of 1MDB to carry out certain abnormal transactions with undue haste”.

The former Federal Court judge said Najib took steps to evade justice and interfered with the course of investigations into the case.

Najib is standing trial for corruption over the misappropriation of RM2.28 billion of 1MDB funds.

He faces 25 charges, four for abuse of power and 21 for money-laundering, allegedly committed between 2011 and 2013. – June 20, 2022.