KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 19 — Accused of siphoning RM42 million from a state-owned company, former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak testified in court today that he issued cheques from his personal bank accounts based on his “sense” that he had sufficient funds to cover his spending.
Under cross-examination from ad hoc prosecutor Datuk V. Sithambaram, Najib told the High Court in his defence that he trusted the cheques issued in his name would go through without a problem based purely on the word of his former principal private secretary, the late Datuk Azlin Alias.
Sithambaram: Each time you asked Azlin to check the balance, he will go and check the balance before you issued the cheques?
Najib: I didn’t check [the balance] for every cheque. Only sometimes.
Sithambaram: Surely they had to check before you issued these cheques?
Najib: Not necessarily, because I had a sense there was enough balance.
Najib is testifying as the first defence witness in his RM42 million SRC International Sdn Bhd corruption trial.
He explained that Azlin and former SRC International CEO Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil whom he had mandated to manage his AmBank accounts, neither of them ever told him the exact funds he had.
Najib said this was the normal practice for him when it came to managing his personal finances, regardless of cheques being issued from his Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) or his private residence in Jalan Langgak Duta.
He also said the onus lay on his personal aides to ensure there was sufficient funds in his accounts for him to issue the cheques, which he said were mainly for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) purposes.
"I had a sense there was enough money. If they said there was not enough, then it’s a different story. It's their job to make sure there is enough money in the system,” he told the court.
Sithambaram: When you are at the PMO, you checked with Azlin, but when issued cheques from your house, who do you check with?
Najib: No one, I just signed the cheques, on a sense there was enough money and they were not for a big amount.
Sithambaram: But there was a cheque for RM2.5 million, how did you know there was enough money?
Najib: I didn't check with anyone I just issued the cheques.
Sithambaram: Who did you check with then?
Najib: I just had a sense that the money was still there.
Najib also testified he did not check with anyone when making purchases with his credit card while overseas, admitting he 'just used them', and that his cards were not frequently used.
He, however, answered Sithambaram that he was careful with government funds when he was the Finance Minister, despite not knowing the explicit details of his personal finances.
Sithambaram: You are a careful man with money, in terms of government funds?
Najib: Of course
Sithambaram: Your personal funds?
Najib: I don't pay too much attention.
Pressed further, the Pekan MP again stood by his previous stance that he was unaware of RM42 million being channeled into his private accounts, saying he assumed the funds were from donations from the Arab royal family.
Najib has been called to enter his defence on seven charges related to SRC International.
Three are for criminal breach of trust over a total RM42 million of SRC International funds while entrusted with its control as the prime minister and finance minister then, three more are for laundering the RM42 million, and the last is for abusing the same positions for self-gratification of the same sum.
The trial resumes on January 6 next year.
