SRC’s proposal only looked good on paper — witness

The High Court here was yesterday told that the SRC International Sdn Bhd proposal only looked good on paper and was merely superficial.

KWAP former assistant vice president (Fixed Income Department) Amirul Imran Ahmat said SRC International Sdn Bhd former director Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil, Terence Geh (1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) former director) and Zahid Taib chose not to talk about the RM2 billion investment during meetings with KWAP’s Investment board.

When cross-examined by Najib’s lawyer Harvinderjit Singh at the former prime minister’s SRC trial, the 29th prosecution witness described Zahid Taib as the “multipurpose guy” for Nik Faisal.

Harvinderjit: Can I say that these people, Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil, Terence Geh and Zahid Taib always have the air of confidence that this investment made by SRC will succeed?

Amirul: No, they always chose not to talk about it directly faceto-face.

Harvinderjit: Can I say that these presentations shared by SRC International to the KWAP Investment board about its future investment looks very impressive on paper? Amirul: Yes. Harvinderjit: Do they (Nik Faisal, Terence and Zahid) have the confidence that SRC will be the world leader on natural resources? Amirul: No. Amirul also said that they (Nik Faisal, Terence and Zahid) had at least attended four to five meetings after applying for an additional RM2 billion loan (second loan) from KWAP to justify why they needed the extra RM2 billion.

“Nonetheless, the documents shared by SRC were still unable to justify the financing they requested, and the documentation for the financing application was incomplete,” he said.

Amirul also told the court that he had proposed a higher interest rate for the second RM2 billion facility from KWAP.

Harvinderjit: Why did you propose a higher interest rate?

Amirul: We are hoping to push them out.

Harvinderjit: You hope that they will say no?(to the second RM2 billion facility) Amirul: Yes. The witness said he had proposed a 4.6 per cent interest rate per annum, higher than those imposed by Khazanah National Berhad and Malaysian Government Securities.

Amirul said SRC’s only ‘selling point’ for the loan application to KWAP was the government guarantee.

The witness also agreed with Harvinderjit’s suggestion that the RM2 billion single drawdown loan made to SRC was the largest fund ever approved during his three years and four months tenure in KWAP though it may not have been the largest since KWAP was incorporated.

Earlier, the witness testified that SRC had asked KWAP to dispense the proposed second RM2 billion credit facility in one lump sum rather than via progress payment.

He also agreed to a suggestion by Harvinderjit that the SRC’s need for the RM2 billion lumpsum cash was related to two initial public offerings (IPO), namely ETT (Potential IPO short term) and Electrum (Potential IPO medium term) that SRC had in mind.

Najib, 66, is facing three counts of criminal breach of trust, one charge of abusing his position and three counts of money laundering involving SRC International Sdn Bhd funds amounting to RM42 million.

The proceeding before Justice Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali continues today. Bernama