KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court in Najib Razak’s corruption and criminal breach of trust trial heard today that his principal private secretary at the time had asked the executive of a charity foundation to coordinate the transfer of RM42 million into his bank accounts.
Former Yayasan Rakyat 1Malaysia (YR1M) CEO Ung Su Ling said the directive came from the late Azlin Alias, whom she had met at his office in Putrajaya and communicated with through WhatsApp in late 2014 and early 2015.
Ung, who is the prosecution’s 49th witness, said she met with Azlin in September 2014 to discuss YR1M matters as he was one of the foundation’s four trustees.
“Azlin told me that an undisclosed amount of money would be transferred to Ihsan Perdana Sdn Bhd for corporate and social responsibility programmes.
“He asked for my assistance to inform the CEO of Ihsan Perdana (Shamsul Anwar Sulaiman) to transfer the money to an account,” she said when examined by deputy public prosecutor Suliman Kho Kheng Fuei.
Ung said in December 2015, Azlin informed her through WhatsApp that money had been transferred into Ihsan Perdana’s account.
“I was then directed to inform Shamsul that RM27 million and another RM5 million was to be transferred to two accounts in AmBank.”
She said she only knew the account numbers under the name of AmPrivate Banking-MY and AmPrivate Banking-1MY. She told the court she did not know who owned the accounts.
However, an earlier prosecution witness, Jalan Raja Chulan AmBank branch manager R Uma Devi, had testified that these accounts were under Najib’s name.
Ung said in early February 2015, Azlin communicated through WhatsApp that an undisclosed amount of money would be transferred to Ihsan Perdana, and asked Shamsul to transfer RM10 million into one of Najib’s accounts.
Najib faces six charges of money laundering and criminal breach of trust in the transfer of RM42 million to his account from SRC International Sdn Bhd, a former unit of 1MDB.
He is also accused of abusing his power as prime minister by giving government guarantees on SRC International’s RM4 billion loan from Retirement Fund Inc.
The Pekan MP was charged with committing the offences at AmIslamic Bank Bhd in Jalan Raja Chulan and the Prime Minister’s Office in Putrajaya between Aug 17, 2011, and Feb 10, 2015.
The prosecution’s case is that the money received from SRC International which was channelled through several intermediary companies finally went to Najib’s accounts.
The hearing before judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali has been adjourned to tomorrow.
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