KUALA LUMPUR, April 17 — The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) had requested for and obtained details of Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s AmBank accounts just weeks after the 14th general election, according to details emerging from the former prime minister’s trial.
Najib, who led the Barisan Nasional coalition to defeat on May 9, 2018, is facing the fourth day of his first-ever trial involving RM42 million linked to former 1MDB unit SRC International Sdn Bhd.
Bank Negara Malaysia manager Ahmad Farhan Sharifuddin, who was the investigating officer in charge of a July 2015 raid on AmBank, testified to handing over the documents to the MACC in 2018.
“On May 30, 2018, I received a request from MACC to present a few documents in our possession,” the 32-year-old told the High Court.
Ahmad Farhan said he gave the documents seized from AmBank on July 6, 2015, to MACC officer Wong Chien Hoong on the day of the request.
Ahmad Farhan said the documents handed over cover eight accounts — four belonging to Najib, three belonging to SRC International, one belonging to SRC International subsidiary Gandingan Mentari Sdn Bhd, among other things.
The documents include details on two of Najib’s private accounts, which were allegedly used to receive a total of RM42 million in illicit funds around December 26, 2014 and February 10, 2015.
Ahmad Farhan said he had also handed over a set of seized documents — containing the instruction letters on the closure of two Ambank accounts and a receipt for the closure of one of these accounts — to MACC on the same day.
Ahmad Farhan is the fourth prosecution witness in Najib’s trial.
Third prosecution witness Mohammad Nizam Yahya previously testified regarding the documents seized from a separate raid at Affin Bank on July 6, 2015.
The documents were in relation to three accounts belonging to SRC International’s purported corporate social responsibility partner Ihsan Perdana Sdn Bhd.
Ihsan Perdana is stated to be in the business of providing corporate social responsibility programmes for Yayasan 1Malaysia Development Berhad, based on the Companies Commission of Malaysia’s records.
Mohammad Nizam today confirmed he had on June 22, 2018 handed documents from the raid to MACC officer Wong.
Najib’s trial is in relation to a total of seven charges that he was slapped with on July 4, 2018 and August 8, 2018.
At the start of Najib’s trial this April 3, Attorney-General Tommy Thomas had said the prosecution will seek to establish that funds totalling RM42 million from SRC International flowed through Gandingan Mentari and Ihsan Perdana before reaching Najib’s personal bank accounts.
