Ex-AmBank director ushered by Jho Low into Najib's house

NAJIB TRIAL | Former AmBank group managing director Cheah Tek Kuang (drawing, above) was ushered by Jho Low into Najib Abdul Razak's residence in January 2011, the Kuala Lumpur High Court heard.

Reading from a witness statement, Cheah, 72, said he was driven to Najib's residence in Jalan Langgak Duta, Kuala Lumpur.

"Once I arrived at Najib's residence, I met with Low Taek Jho, who is also known as Jho Low, whom I had previously met.

"I was then taken into the residence by Jho Low, who then introduced me to Najib and Jho Low also informed him that I was from AmBank.

"Najib and I proceeded to the guest room, while I saw Jho Low waiting at a different part of the residence," testified Cheah.

During the 20-minute meeting, Cheah said he explained the bank's rules to Najib and that Bank Negara must be notified of the opening of accounts for politically exposed persons.

Cheah testified that when he met then Bank Negara governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz a few days later, the latter did not object to the opening of the bank accounts.

The two bank accounts were a savings account with the account number ending 481, and a current account with the account number ending 694.

The two credit cards are a Visa Platinum with the number 4585 8180 0000 5496 and a Master Card Platinum with the number 5289 4380 0003 8961.

Jho Low's involvement

Cheah explained that a code name "AmPrivate Banking-MR" was used for the current account on a request from Jho Low to Joanna Yu.

Yu was a customer relationship manager at AmBank who informed Cheah of Najib's interest in opening the savings and current accounts.

"I was informed by Yu that the reason for the code name is based on the query made by Jho Low, who had requested for the account to be dealt with the strictest confidence.

"I am not sure who decided the exact code name to be used for this account.

"I only know that there were discussions to use a code name for the protection of information and to maintain sensitivity.

"I also subsequently informed the governor of the Central Bank of Malaysia of this matter," he said.

Cheah testified there were "many" transactions involving Najib's accounts, but he was no longer informed about the accounts after he retired from AmBank in April 2012. - Mkini