Tens of million paid out to Umno and associates, High Court told

 

Najib Razak and Umno are trying to prevent the forfeiture of more than RM114 million in cash seized in a raid. (Bernama pic)

KUALA LUMPUR: Umno and its politicians received tainted money traceable to 1MDB and this can be proven based on the money trail to Najib Razak’s bank accounts, the High Court here heard today.

Deputy public prosecutor Liew Horng Bin said tens of millions of ringgit were paid out either by cheques or direct debits from Najib’s personal accounts to Umno and its associates, showing that all was not well.

“Umno and Umno politicians received tainted money traceable to 1MDB and they are the main beneficiaries of fraud perpetrated on 1MDB,” he said.

This, he said, was based on Najib’s Ambank accounts 9694 and 1880 and AmIslamic accounts 1906 and 1898.

“Datuk Seri Najib simply could not have the endless means to meet the funding black hole. Surely, one would question ‘where did Najib get his money from?'” he said, adding that Najib wore several hats – as prime minister, finance minister, Umno president and chairman of the 1MDB board of advisors who had the final say in any 1MDB business decision.

Liew said this at the hearing of the prosecution’s application for forfeiture of RM114,164,393.44 in cash seized from the premise owned by Obyu Holdings Sdn Bhd before Judge Muhammad Jamil Hussin.

In 2019, the prosecution filed the forfeiture application against Obyu Holdings to forfeit the items including 11,991 units of jewellery, 401 watches and 16 watch accessories, 234 pairs of eyewear and 306 handbags, as well as cash in various denominations amounting to RM114,164,393.44.

Umno and Najib were the third party in the application. Any third party who claims to have any interest in items seized can come before the court to show cause as to why these should not be forfeited by the government.

Liew also submitted that since it had been shown that Umno and its associates were the reservoir for money illegally diverted from 1MDB, in the light of the incontrovertible banking records, it was too far-fetched to suggest that Umno lacked knowledge of the illegal source of the money.

“The conduct of Umno and its associates postulates a classic case of willful blindness. It was obvious that Umno did nothing as could reasonably be expected to prevent the illegal use of the tainted money. Umno instead freely and tacitly consented to the dissipation of the illegal money it received from 1MDB through Najib’s Ambank accounts 9694 and 1880 and AmIslamic accounts 1906 and 1898.

“No matter how one looks at this, there is no escaping the fact that Umno was in the thick of things. Its involvement and collusion in the laundering of money traceable to 1MDB was beyond doubt.

“The preponderance of evidence is already all so clear to see,” he said, adding that Najib’s claim that the cash seized being political donation belonging to Umno was contradicted by the evidence from Umno itself.

Liew said the former prime minister also failed to disclose the contributor’s identity to support his claim.

“The flip-flop answers given by Najib in his witness statement, his police report and the affidavits filed for the present hearing in relation to the cash seized only point to the irresistible inference that the cash seized were proceeds from unlawful activities,” he said.

Liew also submitted that at the time of the raid, the writ of seizure was not only served on Najib but also Obyu as the owner of the property from where all the items were seized at Pavilion Residences.

“During the stage of investigation, Najib said the seized cash was political donation which he held in trust as the then president of Umno. Yet his claim was controverted by the top management of Umno. All the office-bearers of Umno interviewed during the investigation denied that the cash seized belonged to the party.

“The owner of Pavilion Residences, Obyu Holdings, on the other hand, disclosed that all the seized items belonged to Datuk Seri Najib and his family. In the circumstances, there is really no way of knowing who is the actual owner of the seized cash,” he said.

Judge Muhammad Jamil fixed May 20 to deliver his decision. - FMT