Najib Razak has proven himself to be a legendary liar. But as his trial involving misappropriation of RM42 million from SRC International Sdn Bhd enters the New Year 2020, his lies have gotten so extraordinary that it’s beyond believable anymore. At the 72nd day of his criminal trial, the former prime minister has finally made some admissions which could incriminate himself.
Already, it was deemed as an insult to the peoples’ intelligence that despite his role as Finance Minister, Prime Minister and Adviser Emeritus, he has claimed ignorance over embezzlement to the tune of tens of billions of dollars right under his nose. While the U.S. authorities have secured vital witnesses, Najib actually has zero credible material witness to support his story.
The latest documents released by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
identifying Najib Razak as the man who had received
US$681 million kickbacks from 1MDB have been extremely damaging. Yet, the shameless and disgraced crook was determined to cook more lies, no matter how ridiculous they might sound in the court. Here’re some of them:
{ Extraordinary Lie #1 } – Najib Claims He Didn’t Know RM42 Million Was SRC’s Money, But Spent Them Anyway
Najib insisted that he did not know the RM42 million (three tranches of payments of RM27 million, RM5 million and RM10 million) deposited into his personal bank accounts between 2014 and 2015 was SRC’s money. However, when grilled by prosecutor Sithambaram, the despicable former premier admitted he spent every sen of the money.
Yes, the defiant Najib argued that he spent the money because he did not know it was SRC’s money. Had he known about the source of the money, he probably won’t spend it. Using his logic, drug warlords too could also argue that they had no idea the money they spent from their personal bank account was money from drug trafficking.
{ Extraordinary Lie #2 } – Sometimes Najib Can Verify His Signature, Sometimes He Can’t
Today (22 Jan), Najib Razak finally said he was able to verify his signatures on some photocopied documents, including a letter for the appointment of Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil (former CEO of SRC International) as his personal bank account mandate holder in AmBank. Of course, Najib had to admit otherwise who the heck appointed Mr. Faisal in the first place.
But last month the same Mr. Najib insisted he had problems verifying his signatures on six documents related to the SRC shareholders’ minutes and one document about an instruction to transfer money to his personal accounts with AmBank. So when incriminating photocopied documents were produced in court, Najib would conveniently unable to recognise his signatures, otherwise he could.
{ Extraordinary Lie #3 } – Najib Blocked His Deputy From Recovering RM3.6 Billion Frozen In Switzerland Due To Lack Of Plan
A massive RM3.6 billion belonging to SRC International – part of the RM4 billion loan from the Retirement Fund Inc (KWAP) – were frozen by the Switzerland government on suspicion of money laundering. When former second finance minister Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah told Najib of his plan to lead a delegation to the Swiss to recover the money, he was blocked and put in cold storage.
Husni, who had served from 2009 and 2016 in Najib’s cabinet, was told by his boss not to get involved and not to interfere. The minister also claimed he had personally met Najib more than 20 times to express his concerns about the RM4 billion loans by SRC from the Retirement Fund Incorporated (KWAP). But he was treated like an “office boy” on matters regarding SRC.
If the money parked in Switzerland was clean and legitimate, why on earth did Najib stop his second finance minister from claiming it? Why did Najib allow the Swiss to rob the money belonging to the Retirement Fund Incorporated (KWAP)? On Jan 9, 2020, the former PM claimed Husni was blocked because his deputy did not have a “proper plan” to retrieve the funds from the Swiss.
Amusingly, Najib admitted that he actually didn’t tell Husni that his plan to go to Switzerland was disapproved because of the lack of a proper plan. Now, Najib said even he himself didn’t have any plans to retrieve the RM3.6 billion from the Swiss authorities. And he has the cheek to lie that Husni’s plan was rejected due to lack of a plan. Clearly, Najib never wanted the “dirty money” back.
{ Extraordinary Lie #4 } – Najib Used Own Credit Card To Buy Gift For Qatar Because He Wanted To Save Public Funds
Najib admitted he bought a gift worth a staggering RM3.3 million at a Swiss luxury jeweller De Grisogono in Italy in August 2014 for the wife of former Prime Minister of Qatar, Sheikh Ahmed Jassim Al Thani. But he claimed he paid it with his own credit card as he did not wish to use taxpayers’ money because the gift was expensive. Najib also claimed the ex-Qatar leader was his close friend.
Yes, this is the first case in the world where a state leader refused to use public funds for official business despite the fact that he was supposed to do so. Interestingly, Najib was earning a monthly salary of just over RM78,000 before stepping down in May 2018 after his regime was defeated in the General Election. It would take 42 months (3.5 years) of his earnings to pay for the RM3.3 million gift.
However, Najib’s Platinum Mastercard and Platinum Visa credit card expensesused to purchase the jewellery – coincidentally and conveniently – were paid with the RM42 million transferred from Ihsan Perdana Sdn Bhd (which had gotten the money from Gandingan Mentari Sdn Bhd, which in turned received the funds from SRC International) into Najib’s personal bank account.
{ Extraordinary Lie #5 } – Najib Sacked Untrustworthy CEO Faisal, But Trusted Him To Manage His Bank Accounts
Uma Devi, AmBank Jalan Raja Chulan branch manager, had testified that Mr. Najibtook no action and made no complaint from 2011 to 2015 despite so-called irregularities in the signatures of signatories he appointed via authorisation letters to the bank. Ms Uma also confirmed that all cheques in Najib’s accounts can only be signed by him, not even SRC CEO Nik Faisal.
Today, Najib said after former SRC International director Ismee Ismail alerted him that Nik Faisal cannot be trusted due to financial mismanagement, the former prime minister cum finance minister saw it fit to maintain Nik Faisal as the mandate holder of his personal accounts. Even though Faisal was removed as CEO of SRC, surprisingly, he was maintained as a member of the SRC board of directors.
Mr. Najib’s incredible twisted logic was that despite knowing Nik Faisal’s lack of integrity, the scope of his untrustworthiness was only confined within SRC International, and not his personal bank accounts. In other words, ex-premier Najib believed Nik Faisal would not steal money from his private bank accounts because the thief somehow only likes to steal from SRC.
{ Extraordinary Lie #6 } – Najib Never Checked Bank Statement, Not Even RM2.6 Billion Donation
Former Prime Minister Najib Razak told the court that he never checked his bank statements which were sent to his private residence at Jalan Langgak Duta – even to see if the RM2.6 billion so-called donation from the royal house of Saudi Arabia came through. Surely even Jeff Bezos, the world’s richest man worth an estimated US$116 billion, would check his statement for such a huge donation.
After all, it was not every day that Najib received US$681 million (RM2.6 billion) from the House of Saud. It would be once in a lifetime opportunity to see RM2,600,000,000.00 printed on your bank statement. Yet, the Malaysian leader who was earning only RM78,000 a month didn’t bother to check his bank statement for the transactions.
Last month, the disgraced Najib told the court that he didn’t know the balance of his bank accounts, but he had a “sense” that there’s money in his private account and it was this sense that he depended to continuously write cheques amounting to millions of Ringgit. If he didn’t check his bank statement, how did he know the Saudi royal family would give him free cash without strings attached?
{ Extraordinary Lie #7 } – Najib Believes The Arab Letters (Which Were Faked), But Not Bank Statements
When prosecutor suggested that the photocopied letters from Arab royalty which were sent to Najib in relation to the donations were faked, he disagreed. Yet, the crook could not produce the original copies to verify the authenticity of the photocopies. Najib claimed he was in possession of them once upon a time. He said the originals were in the Prime Minister Office.
When Najib uploaded the Arab letters to his Facebook page, hilariously, the letters carried different signatures, despite claiming to be from the same Saudi Prince Abdul Aziz Al-Saud. The biggest joke was that some of the contents of the letters were similar (copy and paste) to a letter written by Eric Tan Kim Loong to Jho Low (both individuals believed to be the same person).
The letters, which appeared to be begging the readers to believe that the money were donations, were addressed to Najib’s private residence in Jalan Langgak Duta, and not the Prime Minister Office. It smells a rat when Najib’s hotshot lawyer – Shafee Abdullah – didn’t think it was important to produce Saudi Prince Abdul Aziz Al-Saud asa material witness to clear a good Muslim like Najib.
Not only the photocopied letters were faked, they were also produced as an afterthought. Najib can insist all he likes that the letters were genuine, but documents released by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) last month has
identified Najib Razak as the despicable former prime minster who received US$681 million
kickbacks from a project called “Project Catalyze”.
{ Extraordinary Lie #8 } – Despite Donations, Najib Never Expressed His Gratitude In His Letters To King Abdullah
The court was told that Najib had written two letters to the late King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia in 2012 and 2013. That was after the allegedly donations from the king between 2011 and 2013. Yet, despite receiving donations of US$100 million, US$375 million and US$800 million in three occasions, neither the letters expressed any gratitude for the jaw-dropping donations.
If you donate US$1000 to WWF (World Wildlife Fund), you can be sure of receiving a “Thank You” letter. At the very least, you will receive an acknowledgement of this gift by email. But in the case of Najib, the state leader was rude enough not to thank King Abdullah despite over US$1 billion in donations. Najib has a fabulous explanation.
Najib explained to the prosecutor that he thanked King Abdullah (who has already died) only when they met face to face, but not mentioned in the letters. Apparently, the letters were not considered proper or official diplomatic channel, but verbal conversations are. His ability to lie was both amazing and entertaining.
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