Deutsche Bank was pressed to speed up US$1bil transfer, Najib’s trial told

 

1MDB’s former executive director Casey Tang Keng Chee had requested Deutsche Bank (M) Bhd to execute the funds transfer as soon as possible. (AP pic)

KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court here was told that Deutsche Bank (M) Bhd (DBMB) was persistently pressed to speed up the transfer of US$1 billion from 1MDB as the then prime minister, Najib Razak, wanted to make a press statement on the joint-venture project with PetroSaudi International Ltd (PSI).

DBMB’s former managing director Jacqueline Ho Yek Wan, 51, said 1MDB’s former executive director Casey Tang Keng Chee had requested DBMB to execute the funds transfer as soon as possible.

“The US$1 billion was transferred in two transactions. The first transaction involved a sum of US$300 million to JP Morgan SA, for account number 7619400, and the second transaction involving US$700 million was to RBS Coutts Bank Ltd, for account number 11116073.

“Both transactions took place on Sept 30, 2009, at 3.14pm and 3.21pm,” Ho, the 30th prosecution witness, said when reading out her witness statement at Najib’s trial on the misappropriation of RM2.3 billion in funds from 1MDB.

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Ho told the court that the account number 7619400 belonged to 1MDB-Petrosaudi while account number 11116073 belonged to Good Star Ltd, owned by fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho, or Jho Low.

The witness added that it was only a couple of days after the US$1 billion was sent out that Deutsche Bank discovered that the account which received US$700 million was actually Good Star, instead of PSI as claimed by 1MDB on the day of the transactions.

At the time, the bank queried 1MDB, but its chief executive officer, Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi, said that Good Star was a subsidiary of 1MDB’s joint-venture partner PSI.

Asked by Najib’s counsel Wan Aizuddin Wan Mohammed about the press statement, the witness said Tang had come to Deutsche Bank’s office, which is in the same building as 1MDB’s office, and asked for the transactions to be carried out quickly before 4pm as Najib wanted to announce the matter.

Wan Aizuddin: This purported representation by Tang motivated you to undertake this transaction as soon as you could?

Ho: I guess yes and no, in the sense that we would have done it on that day anyway. It would go through a queue and we would probably complete it by around five or six something in the evening, but because he wanted it done before 4pm, I had to ask my operations to prioritise the remittance before those of other clients.

Asked if the bank would have delayed the US$1 billion transactions until the next day if Tang had not mentioned that the prime minister wanted to make a media announcement, the witness said the bank would not have delayed the transactions as Tang had given strict instructions to do it on Sept 30.

Asked if she now knew whether the US$1 billion was a true investment based on what she had read in the news about 1MDB and what the authorities had hinted or told her during the investigation, Ho said: “I guess based on what was hinted or implied, it was fraud essentially.”

Asked if she knew how Najib fit into the entire 1MDB matter then, Ho said: “At that point in time, we were told this was an important G2G (government to government) transaction. The bank was under the impression that 1MDB would be like Khazanah Nasional in the sense that it would be a government investment vehicle.

“So, obviously, since it was owned by the finance ministry and Datuk Seri Najib was finance minister, it’s only natural that he would want to give a press statement about a large investment,” she said.

Najib is on trial for 25 charges of abuse of power and money laundering over funds amounting to RM2.28 billion that were deposited into his AmBank accounts between February 2011 and December 2014.

The trial before judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah continues tomorrow. - FMT