Where did the billions in Najib's accounts come from?

If you have been following the 1MDB saga, you are likely to be confused. But you are not alone. Like millions of Malaysians, you will be left scratching your head at the latest turn of events.

History, it is said, can sometimes return to unearth the intricate details which had previously been buried sometimes in legalese and terminology. But most of the time, despite half-truths spun into make-believe statements, Joe Public can detect those things before the truth comes out eventually.

Take the case of the RM2.6 billion, which former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak (above) had claimed was a donation from an Arab prince.

On Sept 10, 2018, he posted a copy of a letter that purportedly came from Prince Saud Abdulaziz Al-Saud of Saudi Arabia on his Facebook account, along with several “Swift” messages between banks.

Najib said the late Saudi king, Abdullah Abdulaziz Al-Saud, had provided him and Malaysia with various assistance, including financial donations, but had asked for the matter to be kept under wraps.

“Since I am no longer prime minister and King Abdullah is dead, I feel it is fitting that I reveal the following documents to clear my name of various accusations and slander.

“I, with my lawyers, have taken some time to get these documents from banks, but we have succeeded in getting most of them. The documents are for contributions in 2011 only. The authorities and banks have the same documents,” he wrote on Facebook.

Najib’s post showed a letter bearing the letterhead of the private office of Prince “Saud Abdulaziz Majid Al Saud” but the signature of Prince “Saud Abdulaziz Al-Saud”.

The letter is dated Feb 1, 2011, and pledges to give US$100 million for Najib to use as he sees fit in recognition of his contributions to the Islamic world, such as by reintroducing Islamic values to the rest of the world and launching the Global Movement of Moderates.

Did Najib have up to RM4.68b in accounts?

In an exclusive interview with Malaysiakini on July 2, 2018, he said that of the US$681 million received from the Saudi prince, US$620 million was returned to the “donor” in the same year.

Najib said the donation came about following his meeting with the late King Abdullah.

His claim has since been disputed in and out of court. While the gullible may have swallowed his words and fell for it hook, line and sinker, the cynics smirked and described it as another tall tale.

A little over four years later, a different storyline of the billions was unravelled at the High Court where Najib is being tried with four counts of using his position to obtain RM2.28 billion of 1MDB funds and 21 counts of money laundering involving the same amount.

Last Thursday, former 1MDB board member Ismee Ismail told Justice Collin Lawrence Sequerah that a total of RM2.28 billion of the sovereign wealth fund’s monies had ended up in Najib’s private bank accounts between 2011 and 2014.

Ismee agreed to this after lead prosecutor Gopal Sri Ram showed him pages of charts that outlined how 1MDB funds were funnelled into Najib’s accounts through a layering process.

Former 1MDB board member Ismee Ismail

Now, back to the confusion. If Najib had received RM2.6 billion from the Saudi prince and RM2.28 billion from 1MDB, simple arithmetic would tell you that at one point, he had more than RM4.68 billion in his bank accounts!

‘Poorly orchestrated self-serving evidence’

Napoleon Bonaparte remarked that history is a set of lies agreed upon. But we are not suggesting Najib’s account is a fib. That’s for the court to decide.

In the SRC International trial two years ago, Justice Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali noted in his judgement: “All roads lead to Rome. In this case, though, they lead to Riyadh. Or so it seems. The many arguments of the accused relate to the crux of the defence, which is that his belief and state of knowledge of his accounts and their operations is premised on the alleged Arab donation monies.”

Najib had testified that the late King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia had pledged his support to Malaysia during a meeting in early 2010 as the basis of his belief.

“In other words, according to the testimony of the accused, King Abdullah did not mention any intention to provide any financial support or donation of monies to the accused or to Malaysia.

“This defence on the knowledge which is premised on the belief of the accused on the alleged Arab donation monies simply cannot hold water. It is very difficult not to characterise the entire narrative of the defence of the ‘Arab donation’ as poorly orchestrated self-serving evidence,” Nazlan wrote.

I make no apologies, sorry for this dive into the past, but hopefully, it will help unravel the “theory” that there were two sources of the money - one from the Saudi prince and another from 1MDB.

You, the discerning reader, will have to clear the confusion as I have attempted to do. - Mkini

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R NADESWARAN is a veteran journalist and writes on bread-and-butter issues. Comments: citizen.nades22@gmail.com

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT