KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 30 — Government-owned firm 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) had in 2009 sent out US$700 million, which was raised on debt, to a freshly-opened bank account now known to belong to Low Taek Jho’s Good Star Limited, the High Court heard today.
Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) analyst Adam Ariff Mohd Roslan said this when laying down the money trail to show how RM2.28 billion from 1MDB eventually flowed directly into Najib’s two personal AmIslamic bank accounts from 2011 to 2014.
Testifying as the 47th prosecution witness in Najib’s 1MDB trial, Adam Ariff said 1MDB on September 30, 2009 instructed Deutsche Bank (Malaysia) Berhad to send out US$1 billion from its Deutsche Bank account in Malaysia to two bank accounts in Switzerland.
Based on the instruction letter to Deutsche Bank signed by 1MDB’s then executive director of business development Casey Tang Keng Chee, Adam Ariff said 1MDB asked for US$700 million to be sent to an RBS Coutts account with the account number 11116073 and US$300 million to be sent to a JP Morgan Suisse account with the account number 7619400.
Citing bank documents, Adam Ariff said the RBS Coutts account which received US$700 million was confirmed to be held under Good Star’s name, and that Good Star was stated as having a Republic of Seychelles address.
Based on the application form to open the Good Star bank account at RBS Coutts, Adam Ariff said the client’s email address was stated to be [email protected] and that the client had signed this form on June 9, 2009, while the bank’s final signature on the form was June 11, 2009. Adam Ariff said this would mean the account was opened during that June 9 to June 11, 2009 period.
Also in another account opening document dated June 9, 2009 and signed by RBS Coutts client Good Star, the client was required to fill in the beneficiary owner’s identity, with Adam Ariff saying: “Here, it states Good Star Limited, 11116073, and the beneficiary owner is Low Taek Jho.”
As for the JP Morgan Suisse account, Adam Ariff said bank account opening form on September 30, 2009 shows that it belonged to 1MDB PetroSaudi Limited with its registered office’s address being in the British Virgin Islands, with the form signed by four individuals namely PetroSaudi International Limited (PSI) directors Tarek Obaid and Patrick Mahoney and 1MDB’s Tang and 1MDB’s former CEO Datuk Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi.
Adam Ariff said a document showed the 1MDB PetroSaudi’s beneficiary owners were stated to be Tarek Obaid, a Prince Turki as well as the Minister of Finance (Incorporated) (MOF Inc) in Putrajaya.
Adam Ariff’s testimony would mean that when 1MDB sent out the US$1 billion in two separate transactions of US$700 million and US$300 million, Low’s Good Star account was only nearly four months old.
Adam Ariff was previously seconded in June 2018 to the 1MDB task force at the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) as an analyst, before becoming an analyst in 2019 where he was promoted to a managerial role in 2022.
Today, Adam Ariff said he had examined 343 banking records and documents when analysing the connection between 1MDB funds and the RM2.28 billion that were transferred in 19 transactions to Najib’s two personal bank accounts.
Based on his analysis, Adam Ariff said the money trail showed that funds originating from 1MDB and its companies in four phases — including the “Good Star” phase — could be traced as eventually ending up in Najib’s two accounts.
For the first phase or “Good Star” phase, a total of RM60,629,839.43 or over RM60 million (approximately US$20 million) — which were transferred into Najib’s “AmPrivate Banking-MR” account from a Riyad Bank account in Saudi Arabia between February 23 and June 14, 2011 — were “traceable” to a RM5 billion Islamic bond or Islamic medium term notes issued in May 2009 by 1MDB’s predecessor Terengganu Investment Authority Berhad (TIA) and a RM2.5 billion loan which 1MDB took on in 2010, Adam Ariff said.
On the first day of trial on August 28, 2019, the prosecution said it would show that funds from the US$700 million sent to Good Star in 2009 eventually resulted in US$20 million being sent to Najib (in two batches of US$10 million respectively on February 24, 2011 and on June 14, 2011).
Also 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).
Najib’s 1MDB trial before judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah resumes on September 18.
The other hearing dates already scheduled for the trial are from September 18 to 21, October 9 to October 12, October 17 to 19, October 24 to 26, November 6 to 9, and November 14 to 15.
