Defence counsel tells court most of SRC's RM4b stolen

 

Most of the RM4 billion outflow from SRC International was stolen, the Court of Appeal heard today.

The three-person bench chaired by Abdul Karim Abdul Jalil also heard a submission from former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak's legal team that no police reports were lodged over the alleged theft.

During the hearing of Najib's appeal in the RM42 million SRC International corruption case, counsel Harvinderjit Singh (above) submitted that most of the fund transfers were the result of theft as the decision behind the transfers was made outside SRC's corporate structure.

The lawyer submitted this concerning his contention that Najib was not an agent of SRC entrusted with the RM42 million, which the prosecution contended was from the RM4 billion transfers.

During open-court proceedings before the Court of Appeal today, Harvinderjit claimed that the SRC board was also unaware of the RM4 billion transfers.

Harvinderjit also contended that Najib was not aware or informed about the transfer of the RM4 billion.

"It was not done within the corporate structure of the company (SRC). It was theft, as the directors did not know about it.

"Without the directors approving the RM4 billion going out, the act of removing the (majority of the) RM4 billion would have been theft," he said.

Previously, Najib's defence team had contended that 1MDB-linked businessperson Low Taek Jho and his associates were behind the various monetary transfers involving SRC and the former premier's accounts.

It was also previously reported that RM200 million out of the RM4 billion stayed in Malaysia for capital investment, while the other RM3.8 billion was transferred to a bank in Switzerland.

The RM4 billion were loans from Retirement Fund Incorporated (KWAP) to SRC, a former subsidiary of 1MDB. SRC later became fully owned by the Minister of Finance Incorporated.

It has always been the prosecution's contention that Najib, through the cabinet, had approved the issuance of government guarantees for the KWAP loans to SRC, which were divided into two tranches of RM2 billion each.

The prosecution said that Najib had done this with the alleged intent to receive RM42 million of SRC's funds.

Meanwhile, during today's proceedings, Harvinderjit also submitted that the SRC board did not lodge a police report about the alleged theft.

When asked by Court of Appeal bench member Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera asked how the transfer could have been done while police reports were not lodged, the lawyer said only Suboh Md Yassin and Ismee Ismail could answer that.

Suboh and Ismee were formerly director and chairperson of SRC, respectively. The duo had testified for the prosecution in the SRC corruption trial against Najib.

Proceedings before the Court of Appeal will continue on Monday next week.

Besides Karim and Vazeer, the other member of the bench is Court of Appeal judge Has Zanah Mehat.

On July 28 last year, the Kuala Lumpur High Court convicted Najib on one count of abuse of power, three counts of CBT, and three counts of money laundering in relation to the RM42 million of funds from SRC.

Judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali had then sentenced Najib to 12 years in jail and a fine of RM210 million.

However, the lower court allowed Najib's defence team's application to stay the sentence's execution pending the disposal of his appeal.

Besides being former prime minister, Najib also used to be finance minister, advisor emeritus to SRC, and chairperson of 1MDB's board of advisors. - Mkini