PROSECUTION ESTABLISHES MONEY TRAIL
RM5m to RM40m allegedly flowed from one 1MDB unit to another
THE third day of Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s trial yesterday saw the prosecution establishing a paper trail involving the transfer of millions of ringgit from one 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) subsidiary company to another.
This included the flow of RM5 million to RM40 million between 1MDB subsidiary SRC International Sdn Bhd, Gandingan Mentari Sdn Bhd and Ihsan Perdana Sdn Bhd, which was purportedly set up as SRC International’s corporate social responsibility partner.
The prosecution witnesses who testified and were thoroughly grilled by defence lawyers yesterday included Bank Negara Malaysia investigating officer Azizul Adzani Abdul Ghafar and his colleague, Muhammad Nizam Yahya.
Nizam, 39, who took to the stand as the third prosecution witness, testified that he was an analyst at the financial intelligence department of Bank Negara Malaysia.
He related how he had served Affin Bank Bhd with a notice under Section 37(1) of the Anti-Money Laundering Act on July 6, 2015.
He said the notice was served for the bank to hand over all documents related to Ihsan Perdana’s bank accounts.
The bank provided the information, including furnishing documents like account opening forms, specimen signatures, list of authorised signatories and related documents.
Najib’s lawyers will continue cross-examining Nizam today.
Earlier, Azizul detailed how he had obtained documents from
the AmBank branch in Jalan Raja Chulan that showed the transaction of millions of ringgit between SRC International and Gandingan Mentari.
The transactions took place between December 2014 and February 2015.
He said this during cross-examination by Najib’s lawyer, Harvinderjit Singh.
Azizul, 41, confirmed that he had received documents about a number of bank accounts following a raid on the AmBank branch.
The raid on the commercial bank was conducted on July 6, 2015.
Among documents that were seized following the raid included details of Najib’s bank accounts, SRC International and Gandingan Mentari.
Azizul had testified on Monday that he obtained all these documents from the branch manager, R. Uma Devi.
Azizul said he was at the bank from about 9am to 9pm.
He said there was another team that also took part in the raid, but it concentrated on other sections of the bank.
Harvinderjit asked him repeatedly about how the raid progressed and whether Uma Devi had been asked to surrender specific transactions involving the bank accounts. However, Azizul maintained that he did not ask for specific transactions.
“I only received orders to get documents relating to certain bank account numbers.
“The branch manager gave these to me when I raided the bank in the morning.
“Later in the day, she gave me more documents when I was still at the branch,” he said.
Najib is facing three counts of criminal breach of trust (CBT) and one count of abuse of power over funds amounting to RM42 million linked to SRC International.
He is also facing three money laundering charges over the same funds.
The three CBT charges were read under Section 409 of the Penal Code, while the power abuse charge was read under Section 23 of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission Act 2009.
Najib, who is Pekan member of parliament, is also facing three charges under the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001.
He faces up to 20 years’ jail, caning and a fine for the CBT charges; a maximum 20 years’ jail and a fine of not less than five times the amount of bribe involved for the abuse of power charge; and, jail time not exceeding 15 years and a fine of up to RM15 million for the money laundering charges.
The public first heard about SRC International when The Wall Street Journal exposed that money flowed from the company into Najib’s accounts.
Between December 2014 and February 2015, SRC International allegedly transferred RM50 million to Gandingan Mentari, which then transferred the money to Ihsan Perdana, WSJ reported.