Ex-1MDB director agrees millions of 1MDB funds went into Najib's bank accounts

KUALA LUMPUR, April 7 ― Millions of ringgit belonging to or borrowed by 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) went into former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s personal bank accounts previously, former 1MDB director Tan Sri Ismee Ismail confirmed in court today.

Ismee was testifying as the 13th prosecution witness in Najib’s trial over the misappropriation of more than RM2 billion of 1MDB funds.

Previously, Najib’s lawyers had suggested to Ismee that Najib had allegedly not received personal benefits from 1MDB transactions and deals, but lead prosecutor Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram today challenged this by showing flow charts of money flows from 1MDB deals and other documents to Ismee.

With this 1MDB trial involving four phases of 1MDB transactions and deals that resulted in billions of ringgit allegedly siphoned out from the company, Sri Ram highlighted a select few of these transactions in flow charts shown to Ismee today.

The transactions which Sri Ram showed to Ismee today included US$9.99 million on February 24, 2011 and another US$9.99 million on June 14, 2011 which made its way into an AmIslamic bank account with account number ending 9694 from the first phase of 1MDB transactions, and funds worth RM15 million and RM75 million being transferred on October 30, 2012 and November 19, 2012 to the same account under the second phase of transactions.

From the flow charts, Sri Ram also showed money flows of RM45 million in five transactions between October to December 2014 to the AmIslamic Bank account with bank account number ending 1880 from the fourth phase.

These transactions that were highlighted today would come up to a total of RM195 million that went into the two AmIslamic bank accounts, with Ismee agreeing based on documents shown that these two bank accounts were actually Najib’s.

For the RM15 million and RM75 million transactions which Sri Ram highlighted, he then asked Ismee whether the latter would like to “review your answer given at the cross-examination that the accused did not get any personal benefit from these transactions.”

Ismee then confirmed that money had gone to Najib’s accounts.

Ismee: From the flow chart, I can see that the money went into the account 9694.

Sri Ram: Belonging to the accused?

Ismee: Yes.

Sri Ram: And these monies were actually 1MDB monies?

Ismee: Yes.

Ismee gave similar answers to similar questions on the other highlighted transactions by Sri Ram, who was challenging Najib’s lawyers’ suggestion that the former prime minister did not benefit from the 1MDB transactions.

Datuk Seri Najib Razak arrives at the Kuala Lumpur High Court April 7, 2022. — Picture by Firdaus Latif

Sri Ram told Ismee that the flowcharts which Najib’s lawyers had shown him previously were not complete, and had then showed the prosecution’s own flowcharts to Ismee today — which showed some of the 1MDB funds as ending up at Najib’s accounts — to show a “complete picture” of the 1MDB transactions.

Sri Ram did not ask Ismee today about transactions that took place in the third phase of the 1MDB transactions in this trial.

Sri Ram previously in September 2020 had showed another prosecution witness — former 1MDB CEO Datuk Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi — a summary of several major 1MDB-linked transactions which resulted in funds totalling US$681 million flowing to an Ambank account with account number ending 9694 between March 21, 2013 to April 10, 2013, with these transactions being part of the third phase.

On the first day of trial, the prosecution had said it would show that 1MDB funds had been transferred in multiple transactions to Najib’s accounts, namely US$20 million equivalent to RM60,629,839.43 or over RM60 million from the first phase, US$30 million equivalent to RM90,899,927.28 or over RM90 million (second phase), US$681 million equivalent to RM2,081,476,926 or over RM2 billion (third phase), and transactions in British pound that were equivalent to RM4,093,500 and RM45,837,485.70 or a combined total of RM49,930,985.70 million or over RM49 million (fourth phase).

The total of 1MDB funds that the prosecution had said it would prove had entered Najib’s accounts from all four phases would come up to a total of RM2,282,937,678.41 or over RM2.28 billion.

Ismee completed his court testimony today in the 1MDB trial.

Najib’s lawyer Datuk Hariharan Tara Singh today cross-examined the 12th prosecution witness Azmi Tahir, who was formerly the chief financial officer of 1MDB.

Najib’s 1MDB trial before High Court judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah is scheduled to resume on April 18.