1MDB trial: Najib did not use money in his account to buy yacht, investigating officer confirms

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 7 — Former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak did not use the money in his private AmIslamic bank account — which was alleged to have received illegal funds owned by 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) and its subsidiaries — for personal spending such as to buy a yacht, the case’s money laundering investigator confirmed in the High Court today.

Assistant Commissioner of Police Foo Wei Min gave this testimony as the 48th prosecution witness in the trial where Najib is facing 25 charges over more than RM2.27 billion of 1MDB funds.

Najib’s lead defence lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah suggested that Najib spent the money in his bank account (which had the codename AmPrivate Banking-MR) for political purposes, which Foo agreed to.

“You agree he spent a lot on political and welfare purposes generally speaking, if you look at what he spent on, he paid for Umno Batu Kawan Penang, he paid for Umno here and there and various expenses that he made, they are either for CSR, welfare or political purposes,” Shafee suggested, referring to corporate social responsibility (CSR).

Foo then replied: “Yes, political individuals and entities.”

Foo confirmed that he had done tracing on why these individuals were paid.

Shafee then said, “It all goes back to a political purpose. You must have taken, or somebody must have taken statements from them. There is no spending individually on himself, like, for instance, he goes and buys a yacht,” before chuckling briefly.

Foo said: “No.”

Foo, the assistant director of the police’s Commercial Crime Investigation Department’s money laundering investigation division, was in charge of investigating the alleged flow of funds from 1MDB through Tanore Finance Corp — a company owned by Low Taek Jho’s associate Eric Tan Kim Loong — to Najib’s AmBank accounts.

Foo had testified that money from a US$3 billion bond issued by 1MDB’s subsidiary 1MDB Global Investments Limited (1MDB GIL) had reached Tanore, and that Tanore had transferred RM2.081 billion (equivalent to US$681 million then) of these “ill-gotten gains” or illegal funds into Najib’s “AmPrivate Banking-MR” account in nine transactions between March 22 to April 10, 2013.

Out of the RM2.081 billion which Najib received in his “AmPrivate Banking-MR” account, he then used RM22.649 million by issuing five cheques to five different recipients in just one week’s time from August 1 to August 7, 2013, Foo had previously testified.

The five cheque recipients were Umno (RM2 million), Umno’s Batu Kawan division (RM100,000), Tan Sri Lim Soon Peng (RM246,000), ORB Solutions Sdn Bhd which managed Najib’s publicity on his social media accounts and personal blog (RM2 million) and Semarak Konsortium Satu Sdn Bhd which provided speechwriting services and an international media team’s services to Najib (RM303,000).

Foo had said all these five cheques signed by Najib had used illegal funds originating from 1MDB GIL.

Using funds in his "AmPrivate Banking-MR" account, Najib had then “returned” RM2.034 billion (equivalent to US$620 million) to Tanore between August 2 to August 30, 2013; and also transferred funds totalling RM162.4 million to Najib’s new account “AmPrivate Banking-1MY” on August 27 and August 30, 2013.

But using a money laundering analysis method called “First In First Out”, Foo had said that the actual total of 1MDB-originated illegal funds used in Najib’s return of funds to Tanore was over RM1.897 billion, and the actual sum of 1MDB-originated illegal funds transferred by Najib to his separate bank account “AmPrivate Banking-1MY” was over RM161.4 million.

Today, Shafee suggested that Najib's "return" of funds to Tanore is not a transaction that falls under money laundering, also claiming that Najib was not spending or transacting it but was returning the money to the purported donor.

But Foo disagreed, having earlier today said that this "return" of funds is a type of money laundering offence involving the transfer of ill-gotten gains.

Foo also disagreed with Shafee's suggestion that Najib did not commit money laundering when he transferred the money from his "AmPrivate Banking-MR" account to "AmPrivate Banking-1MY" account, insisting that it was an act of "layering" ill-gotten gains in the money laundering process in order to "confuse" or "disguise" its source or origin from any law enforcement agencies carrying out investigations.

Witness insists US$620m entering Najib's account was illegal money

Today, Shafee zeroed in on the US$620 million of the US$681 million of funds that were transferred out from Tanore into Najib's "AmPrivate Banking-MR" on March 21, 2023.

Shafee repeatedly suggested that the US$620 million could be an overdraft provided by Falcon Private Bank to its client Tanore and claimed that this meant that the US$620 million was not illegal money that could be traced back to 1MDB GIL.

Shafee based his suggestion on Tanore's March 2013 bank statement, which recorded a balance with a negative sum of over US$620 million on March 21, 2013, before two transactions of US$210 million and US$430 million were recorded as entering Tanore's account on the same day.

Citing the chronology of the records in the bank statement for March 21, 2013, Shafee alleged that the illegal money that came into Tanore's bank account was not sent to Najib and what Tanore sent to Najib was the purported overdraft funds.

But Foo disagreed with Shafee's suggestion and said there was a need to read the bank statement as a whole, and insisted that the US$620 million which Tanore gave to Najib is still ill-gotten gains as Tanore had received the US$210 million and US$430 million originating from 1MDB GIL's funds.

Foo also disagreed with Shafee's suggestion that the US$620 million that Najib received from Tanore had nothing to do with 1MDB GIL or was not illegal money, insisting that the US$620 million which entered Najib's bank account "is an ill-gotten gain obtained from 1MDB GIL".

Foo also suggested it was possible that it was Tanore's bank's mistake in recording the sequence of money coming in and money coming out.

As both Foo and Shafee could not agree on this point, Shafee said he would present arguments on this in the future to the court.

Najib's wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor attended court proceedings today.

Najib’s 1MDB trial before trial judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah resumes tomorrow, with Shafee expected to further cross-examine Foo.