KUALA LUMPUR, May 15 — Ihsan Perdana Sdn Bhd (IPSB) managing director Datuk Dr Shamsul Anwar Sulaiman told the High Court today he would not have approved money transfers totalling RM42 million from IPSB into another bank account if he knew Datuk Seri Najib Razak was the intended recipient after IPSB was used as a fund transit point between December 2014 and February 2015.
Testifying as the 37th prosecution witness during Najib’s RM42 million SRC International Sdn Bhd trial, he said he thought the fund transfers were for CSR activities and he had no knowledge who owned the AmIslamic Bank Berhad bank account where he was instructed to make the fund transfers then.
“I asked Aishah to check whose account it was with Affin Bank (our company’s bank), but the bank said they could not disclose further information to third parties.
“If I knew it was Najib’s account, I would not have made the payment.
“Najib himself had never contacted me personally on those payments,” he said, referring to former account executive Aishah Ghazali who testified earlier as the 36th prosecution witness in Day 18 of the trial.
It was previously revealed in court that a total of RM42 million from IPSB made its way into two personal accounts of Najib (2112022011-880 and 2112022011-906) between December 2014 and February 2015, in three tranches of RM27 million, RM5 million, and RM10 million.
Previously, the High Court was told that both account-880 and account-906 opened at AmBank Jalan Raja Chulan branch were registered under Najib.
He said he had received a visit - around December 2014 - from Yayasan Rakyat 1Malaysia (YR1M) project director Dennis See Thuan Buan informing him that the IPSB’s main account numbered 106180001-108 would be ‘borrowed’ for the purpose of transit safekeeping a sum of money.
“I then asked him (Dennis) to disclose the full details of the transfer but he refused to answer my queries and I need not to know the full details of the accounts,” he said, adding that he could not remember the exact date they met.
Dr Shamsul Anwar confirmed that IPSB subsequently received three money transfers — RM40 million on December 24, 2014, RM5 million on February 5, 2015 and RM5 million on February 6, 2015 — from a source he did not know.
Shortly after receiving each transfers, Dr Shamsul Anwar received email and telephone instructions given by YR1M chief executive Ung Su Ling to make three money transfers totalling RM42 million to two AmIslamic Bank Berhad accounts (account-880 and account-906).
Dr Shamsul Anwar conceded that he assumed the transfers were for CSR purposes as orders from both Dennis and Ung usually were related to CSR programmes.
“I hereby confirm that Ihsan Perdana has transferred a total of RM42 million to the said AmBank accounts as ordered by Ung and Dennis.
“I had to comply with their orders because YR1M was the main contributors to IPSB,” he said.
Earlier in court, Aishah had testified that three fund transfers totalling RM42 million from IPSB into Najib’s personal bank accounts between December 2014 and February 2015 were recorded as “funds for CSR programmes”.
Assuming both Ung and Dennis were under orders from someone, Dr Shamsul Anwar said it was probably orders from Najib’s former principal private secretary, the late Datuk Seri Azlin Alias who died in a helicopter crash on April 4, 2015.
Dr Shamsul Anwar said he only found out the source of the RM42 million from SRC International through its subsidiary — Gandingan Mentari Sdn Bhd — after reading an article published by the Wall Street Journal when he was in Belgium from July 1 until 2, 2015.
Najib is currently on trial over seven charges including money laundering and criminal breach of trust over the RM42 million belonging to former 1Malaysia Development Berhad subsidiary SRC International.
The trial before High Court judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali resumes on May 28.
