KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court was told today that a sum of US$669.8 million was deposited into former prime minister Najib Razak’s private account between 2011 and 2013.
AmBank officer Wedani Senen, who was then in charge of the bank’s remittance centre, said the money came from an individual known as Prince Faisal Turki Al Saud as well as two foreign firms, Blackstone Asia Real Estate Partners and Tanore Finance Corporation.
She added that the funds were subsequently converted into ringgit by the bank and kept in Najib’s account, which ends with 694.
The prosecution, in its opening statement, had said that between February 24, 2011 and June 14, 2011, Najib had received US$20 million which was initially meant for 1MDB’s joint venture with PetroSaudi International Limited (PSI).
1MDB pumped in US$1 billion for the joint venture.
The prosecution also said that between October 30, 2012 and November 19, 2012, Najib received US$30 million, contending that the money originated from 1MDB’s bonds raised to purchase two independent power plants (IPPs) from Tanjong Energy Holdings Sdn Bhd and Mastika Lagenda Sdn Bhd.
It added that between March 21, 2013 and April 10, 2013, a sum of US$681 million from 1MDB was deposited into Najib’s account. The US$681 million was said to have originated from 1MDB’s US$3 billion bond, raised to develop the Tun Razak Exchange (TRX) project.
Najib is on trial over 25 charges of abuse of power and money laundering involving funds amounting to RM2.28 billion that were deposited into his AmBank accounts between February 2011 and December 2014.
Besides Wedani, a legal officer from the Labuan Financial Services Authority (LFSA), Fairudz Mohd Hanif, also testified today.
He told the court that the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) requested LFSA to obtain documents on companies set up in offshore countries such as the British Virgin Islands, Seychelles, Cayman Islands and Caracao.
Fairudz said Good Star Limited and PSI were registered in the Seychelles.
“Good Star was dissolved on May 2, 2014 and PSI was wound up on April 8, 2015. They shared the same registered business address,” he added.
Blackstone Asia and Tanore were registered in the British Virgin Islands, Fairudz said.
Najib’s lawyer Wan Aizuddin Wan Mohamed then suggested that the documents that the LFSA had received were not obtained through diplomatic channels.
Disagreeing, Fairudz said: “In my line of work, we frequently exchange information with other offshore jurisdictions. That was considered (part of the) diplomatic channels.”
The hearing before judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah will continue on June 20.