1MDB TRIAL | Najib Abdul Razak’s former banker testified she was shocked that the then-premier wanted to open an account with AmBank.
Former AmBank relationship manager Joanna Yu (above) told the Kuala Lumpur High Court about her reaction when she heard from 1MDB-linked businessperson Low Taek Jho (Jho Low) that Najib wanted to open an account with the bank in 2011.
During the RM2.28 billion 1MDB corruption trial against Najib today, lead defence counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah was cross-examining the 41st prosecution witness on whose idea it was for Najib to open an account with AmBank.
The graft case against Najib is centred around the AmBank account ending with 694, which the prosecution claimed had received billions of ringgit in funds from 1MDB. The account had the designation AmPrivate Banking-MR and was opened in 2011 and closed in 2013.
Shafee: Who suggested for Najib to have an account (with AmBank)?
Yu: I was told by Jho (Low) that Datuk Seri (Najib) wanted to open (with AmBank). I was shocked because the prime minister wanted (to open an account with AmBank).
Shafee: You do not think the PM (Najib) needed (to open an account) with AmBank? Is the bank so low you did not expect this?
Yu: No, but I do not recall in my dealings. They (previous prime ministers) will (usually) go to CIMB or Maybank.
When Shafee remarked that - besides AmBank - that the then premier only had another account with RHB Bank for receiving his salary, Yu replied that it was because when one looks at Malaysia, a Malaysian bank was always MayBank, and so she did not expect Najib would want to open an account with AmBank.
She also agreed that it was possible that it was not Najib who sought the 694 account to have the designation AmPrivate Banking-MR.
Shafee: Did Najib tell the bank ‘I do not want money to come under my name but under the pseudonym (AmPrivate Banking-MR)?
Yu: No.
Shafee: You took what Low said as representing the truth that Najib wanted the other name (for the 694 account)?
Yu: Yes.
The lawyer then asked the former banker about whether Low ever told her to hold on to Najib's bank statements and ensure the statements were not sent to the former prime minister's house address at Number 11, Jalan Langgak Duta, Kuala Lumpur.
Yu replied that following an incident where Najib's bank statement was accidentally sent to the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) in Putrajaya, she received subsequent instruction from the "client" (Najib) to hold on to the monthly statements and instead pass it to 1MDB's then chief investment officer, Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil.
In previous 1MDB trial proceedings, Ambank Jalan Raja Chulan branch officer R Uma Devi testified that Nik Faisal was the mandate holder authorised to deal with Najib's account.
Proceedings before trial judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah would resume tomorrow.
In previous 1MDB trial proceedings, Yu testified she was introduced to Low two years before the formation of 1MDB’s predecessor Terengganu Investment Authority (TIA) in 2009.
She previously told the court that she was close to Low in a professional capacity, sparked by the bank’s loan deal with a company called Majestic Masterpiece Sdn Bhd.
Yu also testified that she never met Najib directly over his bank account and that Low wanted several so-called Arab letters to be kept secret.
The alleged Arab letters refer to several documents Najib purportedly relied on to prove that Middle Eastern royals promised him a donation.
Yu was one of the key prosecution witnesses during Najib’s previous RM42 million SRC International corruption trial.
During the SRC trial, Najib’s lawyers cross-examined her for several weeks and at one point, Yu reportedly cried while on the witness stand.
Najib is currently serving a 12-year jail sentence over the SRC case, with the accused being brought to court by Kajang Prison authorities to attend his various ongoing criminal trials, which include the 1MDB case.
25 charges
In relation to the current trial before Sequerah, former finance minister 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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