KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 13 — The insistence that funds entering Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s personal AmIslamic bank accounts were “gifts” even though the sender had described them as being meant for “loans” was abnormal, the High Court heard today.
AmBank’s former relationship manager Joanna Yu cited Najib’s authorised account handler Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil as having insisted that the purpose of money being received in the account were as a “gift”.
Yu was testifying as the 41st prosecution witness in Najib’s trial, where the former prime minister is facing 25 charges over the misappropriation of 1MDB’s RM2.28 billion which were alleged to have entered his personal bank accounts.
Yu confirmed that Najib had signed mandate letters to designate Nik Faisal as the authorised personnel to deal with Najib’s personal accounts at AmIslamic bank.
Shown by lead prosecutor Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram a SWIFT message or a banking document which showed the sender of funds to Najib’s code-named account “AmPrivate Banking-1MY” on December 5, 2014, Yu confirmed that the sending bank had stated “loan” as the purpose for the sending of funds into Najib’s account.
Yu confirmed, however, that this was different from what was told to her verbally by Nik Faisal.
Sri Ram: But your instructions were it’s supposed to be a gift, donation?
Yu: Yes.
Sri Ram: So, the document contradicted the instructions given to you, is that correct?
Yu: Yes.
Sri Ram: Is it normal in your experience in the bank for SWIFT document to carry one purpose but oral instructions to be a different purpose, is it normal?
Yu: Um, no.
Asked by Sri Ram if that meant this transaction was “abnormal” and that the sender’s message and the recipient’s stated purpose were not the same, Yu confirmed this by noting that the Treasury unit in AmBank had asked her to reconfirm with Nik Faisal about the purpose of the funds coming in after the SWIFT message was received, noting: “Well, the recipient from Nik Faisal’s side, he mentioned it was a gift.”
Recalling large amounts of foreign funds having entered Najib’s AmBank accounts especially his account numbers ending 9694 and 1880, she said Nik Faisal would confirm the actual purpose for such fund transfers to be for a “gift” even when the SWIFT messages stated the purpose was “Loan/ Loan Agreement”.
Yu recalled that this had happened on two occasions, namely when Nik Faisal insisted that the SWIFT messages were incorrect and that the money coming in to Najib’s accounts were intended to be a “gift”.
The stating of such purposes were required in order for the bank to carry out foreign currency transactions to exchange the funds received in Najib’s account into ringgit, and for reporting to Bank Negara Malaysia.
Jho Low asked for Najib’s account to be classified
At AmIslamic Bank, Najib had opened a current account (ending 9694) and a savings account (ending 0481) in January 2011 before closing both down on August 30, 2011, and had later opened three new current accounts (ending 1880, 1898, 1906) on July 31, 2013 before closing them down on March 9, 2015. Najib also had two credit card accounts with the bank via a Visa Platinum and a Mastercard Platinum.
Yu today confirmed that all four of Najib’s current accounts were given code names, namely AmPrivate Banking-MR for the account ending 9694, AmPrivate Banking-1MY (account 1880), AmPrivate Banking-Y1MY (account 1898), and AmPrivate Banking-MY (account 1906).
“In relation to the selection of AmPrivate Banking-MR name for current account 211-202-200969-4, I recall that this was both a request and suggestion by Jho Low and Jho Low also requested that this account be classified as ‘strictest confidence’ where it is not easy to reveal Datuk Seri’s personal name to anyone or anyone who has access to the account system at the branch,” Yu said today, referring to the now-fugitive Low Taek Jho as Jho Low.
Yu said she had asked AmBank’s Operations division if a bank account could have two names in order to have a “codename”, and said the division confirmed there was no problem to do so as there were corporate project-based bank accounts that were referred to by their project name.
Yu could not recall who gave the “AmPrivate Banking-MR” codename for the 9694 account, and said she only knew there were discussions to use this codename to protect information and preserve this account’s “sensitivity” and remembered that AmBank’s then group managing director Cheah Tek Kuang had told her this had been informed to the Bank Negara Malaysia governor.
“I would like to mention here that in all my dealings with private clients, this is the first time that an individual account has been created with a codename. Normally, codenames are assigned to certain corporate projects accounts,” she said.
As for Najib’s AmIslamic bank account ending 1880 which was given the codename “AmPrivate Banking-1MY”, Yu said she did not know who decided on this codename.
But she said she remembered that Nik Faisal — who was authorised to handle Najib’s personal AmIslamic accounts — had informed the bank that “Datuk Seri Najib Razak asked AmBank to maintain codenames arrangement for these new accounts for the same purpose, which is to protect information and also maintain sensitivity”.
Najib’s 1MDB trial before High Court judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah resumes on November 7, with Yu expected to continue her testimony.
