1MDB TRIAL | Najib Abdul Razak’s former banker testified that she was under the perception that it was not her place to meet the then-prime minister directly over his bank accounts.
AmBank’s former relationship manager Joanna Yu Ging Ping (above) told the Kuala Lumpur High Court this during today’s RM2.28 billion 1MDB corruption trial against the former finance minister.
The 41st prosecution witness was replying during cross-examination by the accused’s lead defence counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah.
Yu: Protocol-wise, I was told he was prime minister. We do not deal directly with the prime minister (Najib). Even Cheah (Tek Kuang, AmBank’s then managing director), Jho Low (or 1MDB-linked businessperson Low Taek Jho), by action, they meet the prime minister, not us.
Shafee: Who told you this frightening story that you cannot see the prime minister? Akin to one (who) cannot see the face of the Buddha?
Yu: Perhaps it was my own perception.
Shafee: Nobody told you this.
Yu: I do not think the prime minister would have time to meet me.
In previous 1MDB proceedings before trial judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah, Yu gave oral evidence that she never met Najib directly over his accounts.
During the cross-examination, with a tense atmosphere at times, Shafee further grilled Yu over whether she knew why 1MDB’s then-chief investment officer Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil was made a mandate holder for managing Najib’s accounts.
Both Nik Faisal and Low are currently missing and the authorities are seeking them to assist in the investigation into the 1MDB affair.
Shafee’s questioning of Yu intensified after she mentioned that her experience with dealing with a client who has a mandate holder was limited to Najib, as bank customers who have mandate holders are usually “incapacitated” (disabled).
The lawyer then pointed out that mandate holders are necessary for busy people such as Najib who was the premier of Malaysia.
Yu then replied that she did not further question the bank branch over this.
At one point when Yu’s response did not seem to satisfy him, Shafee reminded her that “We are not writing a novel” and that the witness should answer directly and “clinically”.
When the lawyer asked about Low regarding Najib's bank statements, including on his credit cards, the former banker replied that there were instructions for her to not send such documents directly to Najib.
She explained that she was instructed to give the statements to Nik Faisal instead.
When queried by Shafee, Yu said she did not know whether Nik Faisal had ever given the bank statements to Najib.
Proceedings before Sequerah will resume on Jan 27 next year.
Yu was a key prosecution witness in the separate RM42 million SRC International corruption case against Najib. The accused is currently serving a 12-year jail sentence over the case.
25 total charges
In relation to the ongoing trial before Sequerah, Najib is facing four counts of abuse of power and 21 counts of money laundering involving RM2.28 billion from 1MDB.
For the four abuse of power charges, the former Pekan MP is alleged to have committed the offences at AmIslamic Bank Berhad’s Jalan Raja Chulan branch in Bukit Ceylon, Kuala Lumpur, between Feb 24, 2011, and Dec 19, 2014.
On the 21 money laundering counts, Najib is purported to have committed the offences at the same bank between March 22, 2013, and Aug 30, 2013.
The prosecution contended that the wrongdoing at 1MDB was carried out by fugitive Low and several others, with Najib’s blessing.
However, the accused’s defence team claimed Najib had no knowledge of the crime perpetrated at 1MDB and that Low, as well as other members of the fund’s management, had masterminded the embezzlement.
Initially a subsidiary of 1MDB, SRC later became fully owned by the Minister of Finance Incorporated (MOF Inc). MOF Inc is also the full owner of 1MDB.
Najib also used to be adviser emeritus to SRC as well as chairperson of 1MDB’s board of advisers. - Mkini
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