1MDB trial: Investigator says Najib declined to answer police questions on money laundering transactions after charged

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 14 — Former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak chose not to answer any of the questions asked by a police investigator on the alleged money laundering transactions that he was charged with in the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) case, the High Court into his trial heard today.

Instead, the Umno leader opted to answer these questions in court as he had already been charged by then, Assistant Commissioner of Police Foo Wei Min, who was in charge of money laundering investigations in Najib's 1MDB case, testified today as the 48th prosecution witness.

In this trial, Najib is accused of having laundered illegal money worth over RM2 billion originating from 1MDB, through the entry of these funds into his accounts and his using and transferring of these funds.

Foo said he had not quizzed Najib over each of the 551 transactions in the latter’s personal AmIslamic bank account codenamed “AmPrivate Banking-MR”, but had only asked him about 75 transactions involving illegal money including those related to the 21 money laundering charges in the 1MDB trial.

While Najib was charged with four abuse of power charges and 21 money laundering charges on September 20, 2018, Foo said he had only questioned Najib on the transactions involved in the money laundering charges on October 3, 2018.

October 3 was the third time that Foo had questioned Najib on money laundering-linked transactions, with the other two times being August 27 and August 30, 2018.

“I recorded statement on October 3, 2018 where I asked, but Datuk Seri Najib chose not to answer, he chose to answer in court,” Foo said.

He had earlier agreed with Najib’s lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah that the accused was not given a chance to explain the transactions before being charged.

In his examination of Foo, Shafee went through the questions the policeman was said to have asked Najib regarding the transactions in the money laundering charges, such as Najib’s issuance of a cheque for RM20 million to Umno dated August 2, 2013.

Foo had asked Najib to explain the purpose of the payment.

Shafee: And he told you, in fact he educated the police on the law. ‘I am prepared to answer if this question was posed to me before the prosecution was carried out. I consider this to be going against the principle of justice in the country’s legal process and I will answer in court later’. You see, if you had asked him before — which he answers all, not a single one he omitted to answer, but that was before you charged him. You agree with me, this is what he told you?

Foo: Yes, this is his answer, he chose to answer in court.

Foo agreed with Shafee that it is Najib’s right to choose not to incriminate himself and to answer in court instead, once he has been charged.

Foo later also agreed that Najib had answered every question in previous interviews before he was charged.

Assistant Commissioner of Police Foo Wei Min, who was in charge of money laundering investigations in Najib's 1MDB case, testified today as the 48th prosecution witness. — Picture by Yusof Mat Isa

Questioned further by Shafee, Foo agreed that he had also asked Najib about the latter’s four other cheques in August 2013 (RM100,000 to Batu Kawan Umno, RM246,000 to Tan Sri Lim Soon Peng, RM2 million to ORB Solutions Sdn Bhd, and RM303,000 to Semarak Konsortium Satu Sdn Bhd).

Foo agreed he had asked about these four cheques after Najib had been charged over them, and confirmed that Najib gave the same answers of choosing to answer them in court instead.

Shafee suggested that Foo was “directed by somebody above” him to go and ask these questions linked to the money laundering charges that were not asked to Najib before the latter was charged, in order to satisfy the requirement of the law for an accused person to be asked to explain during investigation.

Foo disagreed and said he was “not instructed by anyone” to ask these questions, but he had to ask as an investigator and as he has the duty and responsibility to ask the questions as part of the investigation.

Shafee then suggested that Foo had felt compelled to ask the questions after Najib had been charged.

According to the defence lawyer, Foo had realised that charging Najib without asking him for clarification would be offensive to the principle of a fair trial; but Foo said “no”.

Foo had also asked Najib about five transactions worth over RM2 billion which the latter sent out from his “AmPrivate Banking-MR” account between August 2 to August 23, 2013 to Low Taek Jho’s associate Eric Tan Kim Loong’s Tanore Finance Corp.

But Foo confirmed he had only asked about this on October 3, 2018 as a lump sum figure after Najib had been charged and that the accused again chose to answer this in court.

As for the RM2.081 billion which Najib had received in March to April 2013 from Tanore in nine transactions, Foo said Najib too declined to answer October 3, 2018 questions on each of the nine transactions as he had been charged over them by then.

The former premier’s wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor was present in court today as well. — Picture by Yusof Mat Isa

But as for two money laundering charges where Najib transferred RM150 million and RM12.4 million from his “AmPrivate Banking-MR” account to another of his AmIslamic account codenamed “AmPrivate Banking-1MY”, Foo said investigators had missed out on asking these questions to Najib and said he was unsure why.

Foo disagreed with Shafee’s suggestion that he did not ask about these two transactions as he had felt these were “silly charges”.

Shafee tried to suggest that Najib would be inviting trouble by openly transferring from one account to another if he had knew the money in his account was illegal, as he was not hiding it and that it does not fit the pathology of a money laundering offender who would hide money.

Foo said he was not sure why Najib made the transfers but said it matches the crime of money laundering, and also disagreed with Shafee’s claim that Najib’s act of transferring money between his two accounts in the same bank was not an “act of concealment”.

Foo said Najib’s actions of transferring the money amounted to “layering”, which is part of the money laundering process.

According to Foo, the entire 1MDB investigation involves the concealing and disguising of the source of funds that were committed both overseas and within Malaysia, with ill-gotten gains from 1MDB laundered and layered in almost every continent of the world before some of the money came back into Malaysia into Najib’s “AmPrivate Banking-MR” account, and that money laundering was shown to have occurred.

Najib was seen wearing a grey suit, and his wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor was present in court today.

Najib’s 1MDB trial before trial judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah resumes this afternoon.