KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 6 — Former AmBank relationship Joanna Yu Ging Ping today agreed Datuk Seri Najib Razak must have known of matters concerning his personal bank account balances as the former prime minister had issued cheques and made purchases from them.

The prosecution’s 54th witness in Najib’s RM42 million SRC International Sdn Bhd corruption trial also agreed with ad hoc prosecutor Datuk V Sithambaram that Najib would have been in contact with fugitive financier Low Taek Jho for matters concerning his accounts, based on what was represented to her.

This was after she had confirmed that Blackberry Messenger (BBM) chats recovered from her seized device showed Low, also known as Jho Low, instructed her to prevent the accounts from being in deficit and ensure cheques issued by Najib were honoured.

When asked who was constantly reminded her not to let Najib’s cheques bounce, she named Low.

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Sithambaram: From the cheques issued as shown on this document, does it, to your mind, show that Datuk Seri Najib and Jho Low were in communication with regards to these accounts?

Yu: Yes.

Sithambaram: As a banker, looking at facts in this case, minus the Arab funds, is it possible for the account holder to utilise the funds in the account without his knowledge?

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Yu: No, he would need to know he has sufficient funds in his accounts to issue the cheques.

Sithambaram: Has there, to the best of your knowledge, been any allegation that any one of the cheques issued by Datuk Seri Najib were in fact not issued by him?

Yu: No, I’ve not heard of any cheques not issued by Datuk Seri Najib.

Sithambaram: From the cross examination and from looking at these documents, is there any evidence that Jho Low had utilised any of the monies personally that came from Datuk Seri Najib’s account for his own benefit?

Yu: I am not aware; I don’t know the details from the cheques, but from what I see, no.

Sithambaram: This character like Jho Low, I wish I had a friend like him who will transfer money into my account;  if Jho Low did not help transfer the monies from all third parties including cash, into the accounts ending-880 and ending-906, would these cheques issued by Datuk Seri Najib have cleared?

Yu: No, some of them would have been declined and returned.

Yu, after going through more chat logs, then confirmed the monikers Low had used when referring to Najib, such as MNR, for Mohammad Najib Razak, even using the names of fictional characters.

Sithambaram: On November 26, 2014, Jho Low asks you ‘which account should the RM10 million be issued from, OP needs to issue’. Who does OP stand for?

Yu: I recalled asking him (Low), and I was told it was an acronym for Optimus Prime, it meant the prime minister.

Sithambaram: Jho Low here is telling you that ‘OP said likely to close account likely in December, due to its behaviour. OP said they will likely close account due to his behaviour. Again, who is OP?

Yu: I took it to mean Datuk Seri Najib.

Optimus Prime is the name of the fictional character who is the leader of the Autobots in the Transformers comic and film franchise, a member of an extra-terrestrial race of sentient self-transforming robotic lifeforms.

Yu also concurred with Sithambaram that there were no legal action, queries, or complaints filed by the account holder (Najib) against AmBank, or herself as the relationship manager, following the large sums of cash flowing in and out of Najib’s personal current accounts.

Sithambaram: Because this accounts involved large sums of money to any ordinary Malaysian, has there been at any time any, query or complaint pertaining to the conduct of these accounts?

Yu: No, there was any queries, complaints or anything.

Najib is currently on trial seven charges of alleged abuse of position, money-laundering and criminal breach of trust over RM42 million of funds from SRC International, a former subsidiary of 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).