KUALA LUMPUR – Former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak has not filed any written or verbal complaints to AmBank over any transactions or the overall status of his private bank accounts attached to the bank, the high court here heard today.
Testifying against Najib in his 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) main trial, former Ambank relationship manager Joanna Yu Ging Ping said she and the bank had also not received any complaints from the account mandate holder Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil on any of the transactions.
Under re-examination by deputy public prosecutor Wan Ahmad Akram Gharib, Yu was questioned on whether there were any alarms raised by any parties regarding monies remitted to the account.
Akram: Did the account holder (Najib) or mandate holder (Nik Faisal) complain about the account, did any of them tell the bank that there were any weird activities on the account?
Yu: No, apart from Jho Low (Low Taek Jho) and Nik Faisal telling me to ensure the confidentiality of the account, there were no complaints.
Akram: Were you told that the purpose of the accounts was to receive donations from the Arabs?
Yu: I was simply told that PM Najib wanted to open an account by Cheah and was to get all the forms, including credit cards, accounts… I was not privy to what was told to Cheah by the PM (as to why he wanted to open an account with Ambank).
Yu was referring to AmBank Bhd managing director Cheah Tek Kuang, who had instructed her to facilitate in opening the AmIslamic bank accounts for the then prime minister.
Throughout the whole 1MDB scandal and even during this trial, Najib’s lawyers had asserted that the monies, believed to have been misappropriated from the sovereign wealth fund, were a donation from Saudi royals.
Yu had previously testified that she and other bank officers facilitating with Najib’s account were often under stress as they had to ensure the accounts were not overdrawn, as the former prime minister had repeatedly issued cheques beyond the account balance.
The former AmBank relationship manager is the 41st prosecution witness in this trial and has testified before in Najib’s SRC International Sdn Bhd corruption trial as well.
In the ongoing trial, he faces four charges of using his position to obtain bribes totaling RM2.3 billion from 1MDB funds and 21 charges of money laundering involving the same amount.
The trial resumes before judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah from February 27 to March 2. – The Vibes, February 9, 2023
