KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 6 — Former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak had two credit cards with a combined credit limit of RM3 million from AmBank for years up until 2015, with such a credit limit being one of the highest ever given by AmBank, the High Court heard today.

Yeoh Eng Leong, who was the former senior vice president of AmBank’s retail banking fraud management and authorisation department, said this while testifying in Najib’s trial over the misappropriation of RM2.28 billion of 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) funds.

Testifying as the 35th prosecution witness, Yeoh verified that Najib had held a Visa Platinum credit card and a Mastercard Platinum credit card with the combined credit limit of RM3 million, which he believed to be “one of the highest limits in Ambank”.

Citing his experience, Yeoh said the average credit card limit given to bank customers would be around RM50,000 per credit card.

Asked what a bank would normally consider when deciding on the credit limit to be given to a customer, Yeoh said the bank’s consideration would be based on a person’s income documents and mostly based on their income capacity.

While Najib’s lawyer Wan Aizuddin Wan Mohammed suggested that the bank may consider a person’s standing such as if he is a corporate figure or a head of government when considering the amount of credit limit, Yeoh disagreed that this would be a factor.

When asked if being a long-standing customer of the bank would also be a consideration, Yeoh instead said it would depend on what other bank facilities that a customer has and “not really the tenure of the relation”.

Yeoh agreed with Wan Aizuddin that it is the bank that offers the credit limit to the customer, also confirming however that he was not the person who had processed Najib’s application for the two credit cards and that he would not be aware of the circumstances which surrounded the application which warranted the RM3 million credit card limit.

Yeoh also said there were credit card statements for both cards from March 2011 to April 2015, and that both cards were cancelled on March 11, 2015.

Based on credit card statements issued in the three months of August to October 2011, Yeoh calculated that the spending recorded on these two credit cards owned by Najib to be RM103,948.63.

Based on an August 2011 statement, a July 21, 2011 transaction was recorded using the Mastercard for “The Westin Excelsior R Roma” at €22,461.62 or RM98,013.63.

The Westin Excelsior in Rome, Italy is a five-star hotel.

Based on the September 2011 statement, the Visa card was used on August 21, 2011 for three transactions at two luxury brand outlets in KLCC (RM4,145 at Aigner, RM910 at Hugo Boss and RM880 also at Hugo Boss), while there was a tax-free refund from the UK of RM2,190.68 on August 30, 2011.

Yeoh also noted that the cardholder of the two credit cards — Najib — had not disputed any of the spending recorded on those credit cards.

Wan Aizuddin sought to suggest that Yeoh would have no knowledge if the spendings on the two AmBank credit cards were actually made by the cardholder Najib.

But Yeoh pointed out: “But there is no dispute, if that person didn’t use the card, the next month he would have disputed it.”

Wan Aizuddin tried to press on the same question again, asking: “That is under normal circumstances, Mr Yeoh, I’m asking specifically for this case, you have no actual knowledge whether the cardholder is the person who utilises these cards. Yes, no or no comment?”

Yeoh then replied: “I have no comment.”

Later when asked by deputy public prosecutor Deepa Nair Thevaharan if AmBank had ever received any complaint by the cardholder Najib on the spending recorded on the two credit cards which had the combined limit of RM3 million, Yeoh said: “There is no dispute on those transactions.”

As for when the credit card bills were paid for the expenses recorded, the credit card statement dated August 8, 2011 required that month’s RM98,013.63 to be paid by August 28.

Based on AmBank’s records, Yeoh said Najib had on August 28, 2011 attempted to pay the August 2011 credit card bill of RM98,013.63 using auto debit but the payment was rejected with the note “payment rejected by auto debit”, before successfully paying the entire sum the next day on August 29, 2011.

As for the September 2011 credit card bill which had to be paid by September 28, there was initially a RM5,935 sum payable from the luxury spending at shopping mall KLCC, but after taking into account the tax-free refund of RM2,190.68 from the UK, the amount that has to be paid is RM3,744.32. The RM3,744.32 was paid by auto debit on September 28, 2011.

The credit card bill dated October 8, 2011 did not record any new spending.

Yeoh, 61, is now head of fraud management at RHB Bank.

Najib’s 1MDB trial before High Court judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah resumes tomorrow morning.

The AmBank Visa Platinum Card with the card number 4585 8180 0000 5496 and the AmBank Mastercard Platinum with the card number 5289 4380 0003 8961 are the same two AmBank credit cards that were mentioned in Najib’s separate SRC case.

The SRC case had resulted in Najib’s conviction and imprisonment over the misappropriation of RM42 million of former 1MDB subsidiary SRC International Sdn Bhd funds.

In the SRC case, Yeoh who was also a prosecution witness there had confirmed these same Mastercard Platinum and Visa Platinum cards belonging to Najib were used for 10 transactions worth €763,500 (or equivalent to over RM3.3 million or RM3,364,670.65) in just one day on August 8, 2014 at Swiss luxury jeweller De Grisogono’s outlet in Italy.

Yeoh had in the SRC case also confirmed those credit cards’ past usage, including for a US$130,625 transaction (equivalent to RM466,330.11) using the Visa card at luxury store Chanel’s outlet in Honolulu, US on December 22, 2014, and a RM127,017.46 transaction using the Mastercard card at Shangri-la Hotel in Bangkok, Thailand on January 4, 2015.

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