KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 7 — Now-fugitive Low Taek Jho had in 2014 alerted AmBank that money worth US$15 million or otherwise known as “15 American pies” would be coming into the personal bank account of then prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak who was given the codename “big boss”, the High Court heard today.
Former AmBank banker Joanna Yu confirmed this while testifying as the 41st prosecution witness in Najib’s trial, where the former prime minister is facing 25 charges over the misappropriation of 1Malaysia Development Berhad’s (1MDB) RM2.28 billion which were alleged to have entered his personal bank accounts.
Yu was shown a transcript of BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) chats which she had with Low — who acted as a liaison or contact person for Najib’s bank accounts, with these messages extracted from her phone.
Lead prosecutor Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram referred to a series of messages between Low and Yu on May 30, 2014, and asked what Yu understood from a message that read “big boss just called”.
Yu replied: “I took it that Datuk Seri Najib had called Jho.”
Asked what Low had meant with the BBM message “15 American pies incoming”, Yu said: “I took it that US$15 million was being remitted into Datuk Seri Najib’s account.”
Sri Ram: So, in other words, American pies were code for American dollars?
Yu: Yes.
Yu confirmed that she had on the same day asked Low via BBM whether it was possible for the funds to be transferred to Najib’s account in the form of British pound as “pies may have problem”, as the bank Wells Fargo had previously wanted full details of Najib’s account when they were remitting money there.
She explained that Low and Najib’s account mandate holder Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil had said Najib’s account was “confidential” and that information related to it was not to be divulged.
Explaining her “pies may have problem” remark to Low, Yu said: “If they are going through Wells, Wells Fargo had previously asked for information on Datuk Seri’s account and we were told we are not allowed to give those information [sic] to anybody.”
Explaining her BBM message to Low of “GBP for the moment. We had problem with pies — they wanted to know detailed ingredients”, Yu said: “I actually wanted to tell Jho, because he asked if GBP is OK or he wanted to do euro or any other currency, I said GBP was OK for the moment and I repeated the last time they sent USD, we were asked for detailed info on Datuk Seri’s accounts.”
Yu was also referred to a May 30, 2014 BBM message where Low asked to confirm the balances in Najib’s account and where Low mentioned “purple dragon”.
Sri Ram: When he says, ‘Purple Dragon says balances running very low’, who is purple dragon?
Yu: I actually don’t know, that’s why I asked who it was.
Sri Ram: What is the answer?
Yu: It was very cryptic: “Colour plus animal is him”.
Yu said that she still does not know who “Purple Dragon” refers to.
Yu had confirmed that whenever Najib’s bank account was overdrawn in funds, she would inform either Nik Faisal or Low as Najib’s cheques would bounce if there was no money in the account.
She said an individual known as Kee Kok Thiam would then deposit cash into Najib’s account with such deposits worth hundreds of thousands sometimes.
When asked if the bank would dishonour the cheques in such a situation, Yu replied: “It’s a prime minister’s account, so we would chase for funds to ask them to make good so that the cheques do not bounce.” She confirmed Najib is the sole signatory for cheques from his account, and that Nik Faisal does not have the authority to issue the cheques on Najib’s behalf.
Yu confirmed that money in the form of British pounds did eventually come into Najib’s account following the BBM chats with Low, including a June 18 message from Low mentioning a “first incoming” sum of £750,000 which should be credited tomorrow and confirmed she understood this to mean that this would be incoming to Najib’s account.
Earlier today, Yu had confirmed that a total of £9,456,021.92 or over £9.45 million of funds were sent in six tranches from June 2014 to December 2014 to Najib’s bank account number 211-202-2011880 which was codenamed AmPrivate Banking-1MY.
This included £750,000 (amounting to RM4,093,500.00) which was sent on June 23, 2014 to Najib’s AmPrivate Banking-1MY account, with Yu confirming that Low’s BBM message of the incoming fund of £750,000 matched what had happened.
Among other things, Yu confirmed she herself had not received any money from Low, Nik Faisal or Najib.
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 all four phases of the 1MDB scheme.
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 over RM60 million from the first phase of the 1MDB scheme, US$30 million equivalent to 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).
Najib’s 1MDB trial before High Court judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah resumes this afternoon.
