KUALA LUMPUR, October 13 — Former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak would still be personally responsible for his private AmIslamic bank accounts, even if he had given the mandate to former 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) official Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil to deal with the accounts for him, the High Court heard today.
Joanna Yu, the former relationship manager at AmBank which was in charge of liaising between the bank and Najib or his account handler Nik Faisal, told this to the court today.
Yu, 51, was testifying as the 41st prosecution witness in Najib’s trial over the misappropriation of RM2.28 billion of 1MDB funds.
Yu today confirmed that it was Low Taek Jho — a fugitive wanted in Malaysia for his role in the 1MDB scheme and better known as Jho Low — who had in 2011 told her that Najib “was keen to open an account” with AmBank.
Yu said Low had also informed her that AmBank’s group managing director Cheah Tek Kuang should be the one to meet up with Najib on the opening of the new bank account.
After helping provide the bank account opening documents to Cheah who met with Najib and after the documents were returned with signatures and sent to the bank’s Jalan Raja Chulan branch for processing, Yu confirmed that a savings account (with account number ending 0481) and current account (with account number ending 9694) were opened.
“In relation to the opening of these accounts, I did not deal directly or meet with Datuk Seri Najib himself,” she said.
She confirmed that she had never met Najib in person before in respect of his bank accounts, and had instead dealt with Low who told her of Najib’s intention to open the AmBank personal accounts and later, Nik Faisal.
Yu said she had later dealt with Nik Faisal for matters relating to Najib’s accounts after she had received a mandate letter from Najib which stated Nik Faisal to be his representative to handle his personal bank accounts.
Yu explained she had asked the bank branch for a sample of the mandate letter and passed the sample to Low, and the signed mandate letter from Najib to AmIslamic Bank was later returned to her from Nik Faisal’s office.
Previously, Cheah had told the court that Najib had revealed he was expecting to receive a purported US$100 million in purported Saudi donations when opening up his personal AmIslamic account with the account number ending 9694. This was also the same bank account where billions of ringgit had flowed in and out over less than two years before Najib closed it down on August 30, 2013.
Today, lead prosecutor Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram asked who was the account holder of the 9694 accounts despite the existence of the mandate, with Yu replying: “The account belongs to Datuk Seri Najib.”
Yu then confirmed Najib would still be responsible for the account.
Sri Ram: In respect of transactions between the bank and Datuk Seri Najib, and done through Nik Faisal, who would be accountable to the bank, despite this mandate? I mean if Datuk Seri Najib’s account was in debit for RM10 million, whom would you have to look to to recover the RM10 million?
Yu: Datuk Seri Najib.
Sri Ram: So despite the mandate, the account holder is still personally liable for his account?
Yu: Yes.
On the first day of trial, the prosecution said it would prove that RM2,282,937,678.41 or over RM2.28 billion of 1MDB funds had entered Najib’s personal bank accounts from the 1MDB scheme, including via companies allegedly linked to fugitive Low Taek Jho’s associate Eric Tan Kim Loong.
AmBank’s Jalan Raja Chulan branch manager R. Uma Devi previously confirmed that Najib’s 9694 account had received funds worth over RM2.233 billion (namely over RM60.6 million in 2011, over RM90 million in 2012, over RM2.08 billion in just nine transactions within 20 days in 2013).
Najib’s 1MDB trial before High Court judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah is scheduled to resume on November 7, with Yu expected to continue testifying.
