SRC trial: Ex-director acknowledges his signatures may have been forged by Nik Faisal in documents

KUALA LUMPUR, July 1 — Former SRC International Sdn Bhd director Datuk Suboh Md Yassin acknowledged today the possibility that the company’s chief executive Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil may have forged his signatures on bank documents, the High Court was told during Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s trial.

During cross-examination, Datuk Suboh Md Yassin said it was possible that forgery may have taken place after his signatures on hard copies and scanned copies on bank transactions and instruction letters prepared by the defence were brought up for comparison.

Earlier today, the court allowed the defence’s request to have Suboh produce samples of his signature on two pieces of papers to compare with documents from SRC International and the bank.

The defence had also brought in a projector to assist Suboh in verifying the authenticity of several documents that have been photocopied onto transparencies as well as Suboh’s signature on each document.

After verifying the documents’ legitimacy, the defence then superimposed two separate copies which showed that Suboh’s signature on both copies was exact and identical.

Following that the defence then showed another set of documents that had identical signatures, albeit in varying sizes.

Najib’s lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah then pointed out to the court that the two signatures were remarkably different, despite them being copies of the same document.

He suggested that the hard copies bore forged signatures that were signed by a person that was not Suboh, while the scanned copies merely used as a scanned copy of Suboh’s real signature.

Muhammad Shafee: You are satisfied with what I’ve shown you, yes?

Suboh: Yes.

Muhammad Shafee: I have virtually and conclusively proven that your signature on hard copies had been forged, and the scanned copies (of your signature) were photocopied and pasted and sent to the bank as though they were real documents.

Muhammad Shafee: I am putting it to you that Nik Faisal forged your signature, scanned your forged signature, and sent it to the bank. Do you agree?

Suboh: Maybe.

Based on bank statements shown in court previously, a total of RM50 million went into Gandingan Mentari’s AmBank account in three separate transactions authorised by Nik Faisal and Suboh.

The three transactions were, RM40 million on December 24, 2014; RM5 million on February 5, 2015 and RM5 million on February 6, 2015.

Suboh also replied in the affirmative when suggested if due to startling differences in the scanned and hard copies of the bank documents, he would not have consented to the transfer of the funds.

To another question, Suboh also testified that the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) took statements from him on six occasions, once in November 2015 and five times between May and August 2018.

The first interview took place on November 27, 2015 while the next five MACC interviews in 2018 were recorded on May 28, 30, 31; and August 13 and 15.

Najib, who is the Pekan MP, is on trial over seven charges of abuse of position, criminal breach of trust and money-laundering over RM42 million of SRC International’s funds.

The trial before High Court Judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali resumes at 9am tomorrow.