KUALA LUMPUR: The investigating officer in Najib Razak’s 1MDB case has told the High Court a former banker in Singapore has refused to testify at the former prime minister’s trial.
Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) investigating officer Nur Aida Arifin said she was informed by Singapore authorities former BSI Bank banker Yak Yew Chee was unwilling to attend court here.
Aida said Yak went to jail in the republic for 18 weeks in 2016 for forgery and failing to flag suspicious 1MDB-related transactions.
She said MACC had recorded Yak’s statement in 2018, but does not know his present whereabouts.
Last year, another former BSI Bank employee, Kevin Swampillai, appeared as a prosecution witness in the case.
Swampillai told the court fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho, or Jho Low, had “prevailed” over 1MDB officers in the management of an offshore subsidiary set up in the British Virgin Islands.
He also said Najib was concerned about a US$2.3 billion (RM10.1 billion) “investment” made by 1MDB through a Cayman Islands fund manager.
Aida told the court she had asked then attorney-general Tommy Thomas to seek assistance from foreign countries to obtain documents and record statements from relevant witnesses.
However, she said, countries such as Switzerland and Barbados did not respond to the government’s request to record statements from witnesses.
Najib is facing 25 counts of money laundering and abuse of power over alleged 1MDB funds amounting to RM2.28 billion deposited into his AmBank accounts between February 2011 and December 2014.
The hearing before Justice Collin Lawrence Sequerah continues tomorrow. - FMT
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