KUALA LUMPUR – Former Singaporean banker today told the high court here that there was someone above the fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho or Jho Low in the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) scandal.
He said he felt a sense of incredulity that Jho Low could command millions of dollars of 1MDB funds without having someone above him.
Kevin Micheal Swampillai, 59, who worked with BSI Bank Singapore from 2010 to 2016 said that “someone” could be a director-general of the treasury, or a person from the government.
“I don’t think Jho Low could command millions on a whim, but it didn’t have to be Datuk Seri Najib Razak,” he said.
The 44th prosecution witness said this when queried by the former premier’s lead counsel Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah at Najib’s trial involving the misappropriation of RM2.3 billion from 1MDB funds.
Kevin further said that the bank only dealt with Jho Low through the bank’s former relationship manager Yak Yew Chee, thus, he had very limited interaction with Jho Low, and may have met him only two to three times.
The witness also said Jho Low had never told him personally that he was close to, or had talked to Najib.
Yesterday, the witness said Jho Low gave various intimations to BSI Bank that he was an advisor to Najib – thus Kevin had the impression that the transactions in accounts belonging to Minister of Finance Incorporated (MoF Inc) companies were undertaken with Najib’s knowledge.
Today, Kevin also agreed with Shafee’s suggestion that just because SRC International Sdn Bhd and 1MDB were owned by the Finance Ministry when Najib was the minister, it did not mean Najib knew about all transactions involving the entities.
Apart from that, the witness said he and other colleagues from the BSI Bank had raised their suspicions about 1MDB and SRC International to the higher-ups within the bank, but said they were instead encouraged to continue carrying out the lucrative transactions involving huge sums of money.
He stressed that he felt it was odd that these Malaysian government-linked entities or sovereign wealth funds had chosen BSI Bank which was not even a large bank and confirmed the monies transacted were huge sums.
“Yes, I did have suspicions. I did have concerns at the very beginning during the SRC phase of these transactions.
“I voiced my concerns, not just about SRC, but even Brazen Sky transactions. I voiced my concerns to my supervisors in the bank. I don’t think I was the only one for that matter.
“I believe there were loads of concerns being expressed by compliance in particular.
“I raised my concerns in the beginning but I think it sort of fell on deaf ears within the higher echelons of the bank because nothing was being done to stop these transactions.
“But, there was no factual basis for these concerns because there was no information forthcoming from clients on these transactions.
The main question was where is the money going to eventually end up or with whom, and that question was never answered by the account signatory or Jho Low despite the fact that the question was posed many times.
“And ultimately a decision was taken by higher-ups in BSI Bank because those transactions continued unabated despite concerns being expressed on the ground in terms of the veracity of these transactions,” he said.
Najib, 70, is facing four charges of using his position to get bribes totalling RM2.3 billion from 1MDB funds and 21 charges of money laundering.
The hearing before judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah continues on April 17. – Bernama, March 2, 2023
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