At 1MDB trial, police investigator says Najib mentioned bank account opened to receive ‘Saudi donation’; checks also showed this

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 8 — Former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak had told police investigators that he had opened his personal AmIslamic bank account in preparation to receive alleged donations from Saudi Arabia, the High Court heard during the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) trial today.

Assistant Commissioner of Police Foo Wei Min, the prosecution’s 48th witness, testified that Najib had told him so while under cross-examination by Najib’s lead defence lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah.

Foo also confirmed that money from a bank based in Saudi Arabia was indeed sent to Najib’s bank account.

Shafee was quizzing Foo about Najib’s AmIslamic bank account, which had an account number ending 9694 and the codename “AmPrivate Banking-MR” and which was opened on January 13, 2011.

Shafee: So the next question is, my client instructs me that he opened the account in order to receive the Saudi donation. When he opened this account, this account was opened in order to receive Saudi donation which was indicated to him when he met King Abdullah in Saudi, that is his instruction and he has maintained that throughout. Did he not mention that to you?

Foo: Yes.

Shafee: You noticed, from that account which he said he opened to receive the donation, these donations did in fact come from Saudi Arabia, the Riyad Bank?

Foo: Yes.

Foo confirmed that some of the money which entered into Najib’s “AmPrivate Banking-MR” account came from Saudi’s Ministry of Finance and one Prince Faisal bin Turki Al Saud.

Shafee then suggested that the first seven transactions in Najib’s “AmPrivate Banking-MR” account that were recorded as coming from Saudi Arabia was “consistent” with Najib’s claim regarding the Saudi donations.

Foo said “Yes” to this as well.

Apart from the RM500 initial deposit made in the “AmPrivate Banking-MR” account, Shafee also asked Foo about seven transactions between 2011 to 2012 of money coming in from the Saudi’s Ministry of Finance and the individual “Prince Faisal” via their bank accounts in Saudi Arabia’s Riyad Bank.

These seven transactions that entered Najib’s account were from the Ministry of Finance’s Riyad Bank account at nearly US$50 million and nearly US$30 million in August and November 2011, and from Prince Faisal’s Riyad Bank account at nearly US$50 million, nearly US$10 million, nearly US$10 million, nearly US$30 million, nearly US$25 million from 2011 to 2012.

If the seven transactions are totalled up, they would be nearly US$205 million.

ACP Foo Wei Min arrives at the Kuala Lumpur Court Complex on November 8, 2023. — Picture by Hari Anggara.

Najib is on trial in relation to more than RM2.27 billion of funds misappropriated from 1MDB. These funds were alleged to have entered Najib’s private AmIslamic bank accounts.

In the 1MDB case, the prosecution as well as prosecution witnesses have said that there are four phases of the 1MDB scheme where more than RM2.27 billion was siphoned away from the Finance Ministry-owned company and its subsidiaries.

Two of the seven transactions mentioned by Shafee are both US$10 million sent out from Prince Faisal’s Riyad Bank account in late February 2011 and mid-June 2011 to Najib’s “AmPrivate Banking-MR” account under Phase One of the 1MDB scheme, with these two transactions equivalent to RM30,449,929.97 and RM30,179,909.46 then.

During the 1MDB trial, Najib’s lawyers had repeatedly claimed that he had believed the RM2.27 billion which entered his personal bank accounts were donations, and produced four purported letters from a purported Saudi prince — who had alternately signed off the letters as “Saud Abdulaziz AL-Saud”, “HRH Prince Saud Abdulaziz Al-Saud”, and “Saud Abdulaziz Al Saud” — which promised huge sums of money as gifts.

The four purported letters addressed to Najib are dated February 1, 2011 with a purported promise of a gift of US$100 million, followed by a November 1, 2011 letter promising a gift of US$375 million, a March 1, 2013 letter promising a gift of US$800 million and a June 1, 2014 letter promising £50 million.

But the prosecution had in December 2022 insisted that Najib will not be able to use these four letters to defend himself over the RM2.27 billion as other courts had found the letters to be a fabrication.

Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah (right) is seen outside at the Kuala Lumpur Court Complex on November 8, 2023. — Picture by Hari Anggara.

Foo, the assistant director of the police’s Commercial Crime Investigation Department’s money laundering investigation division, was in charge of investigating the alleged money laundering offences that Najib had committed by receiving, using and transferring “ill-gotten gains” or illegal money under Phase Three of the 1MDB scheme.

According to Foo, 1MDB’s subsidiary 1MDB Global Investments Limited (1MDB GIL) had issued a US$3 billion bond, but some of these money were sent to three purported investment funds — Devonshire Funds Limited, Enterprise Emerging Markets Fund and Cistenique Investment Fund — before they reached Malaysian fugitive Low Taek Jho’s associate Eric Tan Kim Loong’s Tanore Finance Corp, and that Tanore had then further sent US$681 million (equivalent to RM2.081 billion) to Najib’s “AmPrivate Banking-MR” account in 2013. From the RM2.081 billion Najib received, he had signed five cheques totalling RM22.649 million for recipients such as Umno and companies managing his publicity and which prepared his speeches, and had also transferred RM1.897 billion back to Tanore and also transferred RM161.4 million to his separate bank account “AmPrivate Banking-1MY”.

Today, Shafee also sought to cast doubt on Foo’s investigation on the money trail tracing 1MDB GIL funds to Najib’s account “AmPrivate Banking-MR” account.

Shafee questioned how Foo would be able to connect 1MDB GIL’s money with Tanore’s funds which were sent to Najib, saying that Foo did not detail out his analysis on the three investment funds where the 1MDB GIL funds allegedly passed through before reaching Tanore.

But Foo said his investigation was not on the part involving the three investment funds, and that his investigation was on the tracing of funds when money laundering occurred with ill-gotten gains from 1MDB GIL going into Tanore and then from Tanore to Najib’s account.

Saying that he does have the money trail and the knowledge, Foo however said the part connecting 1MDB GIL with the money in Tanore’s account is not under his scope of investigation and would be for a separate investigating officer attached with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) to testify in the High Court subsequently.

Foo disagreed with Shafee’s suggestion that the money trail from the 1MDB GIL until Najib’s account is a trail that he must examine as an investigator on money laundering in the 1MDB case, also disagreeing with Shafee’s suggestion that there are “gaps” in his investigation because he did not examine the detailed transactions in the bank statements of the three investment funds’ accounts.

Foo confirmed he did not interview any of the individuals who governed the three investment funds as he did not know who they are, but disagreed with Shafee’s suggestion that there was a significant “gap” in his investigation as none of these officials have become witnesses in this case.

The trial before judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah resumes tomorrow.