KUALA LUMPUR: Former prime minister Najib Razak told the High Court today there were “a few occasions” when he had communicated with Low Taek Jho, or Jho Low, over credit card transactions from his accounts.
Najib said this when he was shown, on a Blackberry Messenger (BBM), transcripts between Low and former Ambank relationship manager, Joanna Yu. The transcripts were tendered in court earlier during the prosecution’s case.
Ad-hoc prosecutor V Sithambaram pointed out to the former prime minister that on Dec 23, 2014 Low had sent a message which had originated from Najib to Joanna, saying that his credit cards were “not going through” as he wanted to charge US$100,000 in Hawaii.
Yu responded by saying the bank’s credit card system was down and that she was looking into it.
On Aug 8, 2014, Low sent a message to Yu telling her to clear transactions amounting to RM3.3 million in Italy on Najib’s credit cards.
Sithambaram: From the BBM chats, Jho Low was making sure the transactions were honoured?
Najib: Yes.
Najib said he was informed of the balance in the bank accounts by then principal private secretary Azlin Alias and that “on occasions, Jho Low was in contact with me”.
Yesterday, Najib testified that Low’s involvement with his bank accounts was only as a person facilitating the transfer of “Arab donations” between 2011 and 2013, adding that the late Saudi ruler King Abdullah had agreed to provide him with support in the form of financial donations.
The court heard that Najib had opened five current accounts with Ambank and all the accounts had been closed in 2015. Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil, the former SRC International chief executive officer, was the authorised person to manage all five accounts.
The bank had also provided credit card facilities under the bank accounts.
Yu previously testified that she would contact Low if she could not get Nik Faisal.
Najib is facing six charges of money laundering and criminal breach of trust in the transfer of RM42 million to his account from SRC International, 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 hearing continues on Jan 20 before High Court judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali. - FMT
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