Bank didn't inform Najib about suspicious transactions, court hears

Najib Abdul Razak’s legal team claimed that the former premier was not aware of the suspicious transactions in his bank accounts as AmBank allegedly did not inform him about it, the Kuala Lumpur High Court heard today.

His counsel Harvinderjit Singh (above) argued that AmBank did not even inform him about suspicious transactions in his accounts, despite the bank having been allegedly fined by Bank Negara for not red-flagging the suspicious transactions.

The lawyer said that this is among contentious issues that can only be dealt with at full hearing of Najib’s lawsuit against AmBank and its former relationship manager Joanna Yu, and not suitable to be decided in the hearing of an application to strike out the suit.

Today was set for the hearing of the application by Yu and AmBank to strike out Najib’s suit.

On Dec 10 last year, it was reported that Najib filed the lawsuit against Yu and the commercial bank for allegedly taking instructions from and revealing his account information to 1MDB-linked businessperson Low Taek Jho or Jho Low. 

On Jan 29, Yu filed her application to strike out Najib’s suit. Two months later, AmBank followed suit with a similar application. 

During submissions before judge Khadijah Idrus this afternoon, Harvinderjit’s arguments were targeted against submissions by AmBank’s counsel Yoong Sin Min for the striking-out application to be allowed.

Yoong had earlier today told the court that Najib’s suit should be struck out as it (lawsuit) was a form of collateral attack, which utilised the current civil court, against his (Najib’s) RM42 million SRC International criminal case of abuse of power, criminal breach of trust (CBT) and money laundering. 

On July 28, Kuala Lumpur High Court judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali convicted and sentenced Najib to 12 years imprisonment and RM210 million fine over the SRC International criminal case. 

Harvinderjit today argued that Najib’s lawsuit should be allowed to be ventilated at the full hearing by the High Court because there is the contentious issue that AmBank allegedly did not inform the plaintiff (Najib) that his accounts were subjected to alleged suspicious transactions.

The lawyer claimed that the bank allegedly did not even inform Najib about the alleged transactions and that the plaintiff only found out about it during his RM42 million SRC International trial last year.

“AmBank was already (allegedly) found guilty (by Bank Negara) for not reporting suspicious transactions in the plaintiff’s accounts.

“We did not know. AmBank did not disclose to us. The authorities did not inform us until the SRC proceedings,” Harvinderjit argued.

The lawyer claimed that as a result of Najib not being informed by AmBank over the suspicious transactions in the bank accounts, the former premier did not raise the issue with the bank or lodge a police report over the matter, among others.

Joanna Yu

Harvinderjit was referring to Yu’s testimony as the 54th prosecution witness during Najib’s RM42 million SRC International criminal trial last year.

During the course of the SRC trial last year, she testified that AmBank had asked her to leave her post as a relationship manager in 2015, following a raid by Bank Negara on the bank on July 6, 2015.

Yu had testified that she read in the newspaper that AmBank was fined over alleged failure to file Suspicious Transaction Report (STR) with Bank Negara, and that she was asked to leave the bank. 

Meanwhile, earlier during today’s proceedings, Khadijah did not allow Harvinderjit’s application to postpone today’s hearing.

Harvinderjit had applied for the postponement on grounds that Najib’s defence team needed time to reply to affidavits filed by Yu and AmBank’s defence team to support the striking-out bids.

The lawyer had informed the court today that the postponement is needed as the two defendants’ affidavits had made reference to portions of a separate High Court ruling against Najib in the RM42 million SRC International criminal trial. 

Counsel Gurdial Singh Nijar appeared for Yu in today's matter.

Proceedings before Khadijah will resume at 2pm tomorrow, for Najib’s counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah to counter-submit against the striking-out application. - Mkini