KUALA LUMPUR, July 8 — The signatures of former SRC International chief executive Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil on banking instructions between 2014 and 2015 may have been forged, the High Court heard today.
The company’s former director Datuk Suboh Md Yassin was asked by ad hoc prosecutor Datuk V. Sithambaram to compare the identical-looking signatures on 14 bank documents tendered in the court in the trial of Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s RM42 million corruption trial.
Sithambaram: It could mean that Nik Faisal did not sign all 14 documents. Do you agree? Looking at those signatures, it would appear that someone has cut-and-pasted Nik Faisal’s signature just like yours.
Suboh: Yes.
Sithambaram: So it means Nik Faisal did not sign all the Rentas form?
Suboh: Yes.
Najib’s defence team had previously employed the same method to compare Suboh’s signatures on the Real Time Electronic Transfer of Funds and Securities (Rentas) forms which bore the signature attributed to Nik Faisal.
Under cross-examination then from former prime minister’s lead counsel Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, Suboh acknowledged the possibility that Nik Faisal’s signatures on the bank documents may have been duplicated by someone else.
Suboh said then that he could not be certain if the documents were signed by Nik Faisal himself, or forged.
The documents were instruction letters sent to AmBank in 2014 and 2015 to disburse funds from SRC International to its subsidiary Gandingan Mentari as well as to SRC International’s purported corporate social responsibility partner Ihsan Perdana Sdn Bhd.
Both Suboh and Nik Faisal were authorised signatories of cheques for SRC International and its subsidiary Gandingan Mentari.
When further questioned by Sithambaram, Suboh said he was unaware of any funds from SRC International and Gandingan Mentari being transferred into his or Nik Faisal’s personal accounts.
According to bank documents presented in court, a total of RM50 million went into Gandingan Mentari’s AmBank account in three separate transactions: RM40 million on December 24, 2014; RM5 million on February 5, 2015 and RM5 million on February 6, 2015.
Gandingan Mentari then transferred out the same three amounts on the same day they came in, passing on the money to Ihsan Perdana.
Subsequently, RM42 million from Ihsan Perdana then made its way into Najib’s personal accounts during the same period between 2014 and 2015.
Suboh is the 42nd prosecution witness of Najib’s ongoing trial involving seven charges of abuse of position, criminal breach of trust and money-laundering over RM42 million of SRC International’s funds.
