MACC investigator: Najib never told Cabinet about RM3.6b 1MDB funds in his accounts or complained to bank
KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 26 — Former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak did not tell his Cabinet about funds totalling RM3.6 billion that had entered his personal AmBank accounts, an investigator from the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) told the High Court today.
MACC Senior Superintendent Nur Aida Arifin, the 49th prosecution witness in Najib’s trial over the misappropriation of over RM2 billion of 1MDB funds and who had investigated his case, also linked the money in the former finance minister’s bank accounts to 1MDB’s investment money.
“Datuk Seri Najib never declared to the Cabinet about the entry of funds namely RM3.6 billion into his AmPrivate Banking-MR 2112022009694 account and his AmPrivate Banking-1MY 2112022011880 account,” she told the 1MDB trial when listing the findings from her investigation, referring to the two code names given to Najib’s private bank accounts.
Based on her investigation, Nur Aida said “the money received” by Najib in these two bank accounts “came from 1MDB funds which were issued with the purpose of making investments”.
Nur Aida said money had entered Najib’s two bank accounts during the 2011 to 2014 period, and that there were 526 transactions for various spending during the same period through the issuance of cheques signed by Najib and which were under his own control, as well as payment for his AmBank credit cards, namely his Mastercard Platinum and Visa Platinum credit cards.
Nur Aida said the evidence for these transactions involving Najib’s cheques and payment for the credit cards is contained in an appendix of documents — which she is expected to verify in court later.
While saying that her investigations showed that then 1MDB chief investment officer Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil was given the mandate to manage Najib’s account and now-fugitive Low Taek Jho dealt with Joanna Yu who was AmBank’s relationship manager for Najib’s accounts, Nur Aida also said Najib was the account owner who had “access and control over his own account”.
“During the period when those two accounts were active, Datuk Seri Najib himself never asked Joanna Yu as the relationship manager or AmBank about the entry of money into his account and never made verifications or queries to AmBank about the source of the inflow of funds” to the two accounts, Nur Aida said.
“Besides that, Datuk Seri Najib never complained in writing or orally to AmBank,” she testified.
According to Nur Aida, former Bank Negara Malaysia governor Tan Sri Zeti Akhtar Aziz — who is the 46th prosecution witness in the 1MDB trial — previously said that Najib had in July 2015 asked her to issue a statement that there was no wrongdoing regarding the funds which entered his bank accounts, and that Zeti had refused to carry out this request.
Nur Aida said that a multi-agency task force — composed of Bank Negara Malaysia, the police, the Attorney General’s Chambers, and the MACC — was formed in early 2015 to investigate 1MDB and the money that entered Najib’s account, and that this was headed by then attorney general Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail.
“Datuk Seri Najib ordered the dissolution of this task force on July 27, 2015,” she said.
She also testified that Najib had as the prime minister made several actions during January 5, 2016 to July 29, 2016 which affected this investigation, also adding that she will produce all nine audio recordings — which she had obtained during her investigations — to the court.
Nur Aida said 1MDB was formed with the clear aim of investing and developing long-term projects with strategic importance for Malaysia’s economy with the target of generating wealth and success for the future, but she said each of the investments had caused losses to both 1MDB and Malaysia.
Najib’s lawyers did not raise any objections on Nur Aida’s testimony today of the outcome of her probe, with deputy public prosecutor Ahmad Akram Gharib having informed the court that both the prosecution and Najib’s lead lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah had this morning gone through this portion of her testimony and made amendments to it before she read it out in court.
After testifying on the outcome of her investigations, Nur Aida then started going through a list — numbering more than 200 pages — of documentary evidence which she had obtained during her investigations and were presented to the court by both the prosecution and defence.
Najib’s 1MDB trial judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah resumes on Monday, with Nur Aida expected to further confirm a list of documents produced in this court as evidence and to testify where and when she obtained that evidence.
