Bank officer confirms almost US$670 mln transferred into Najib's personal account

KUALA LUMPUR: A bank officer told the High Court here today that almost US$670 million, involving five transactions, was transferred into Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak's personal account between 2011 and 2013, including two transactions from Prince Faisal of Turkey Al-Saud.

Ambank (M) Berhad SWIFT unit manager Wedani Senen, 48, said all transactions involved the former prime minister's bank accounts, ending with the number 694.

The 29th prosecution witness said a sum of US$20 million was deposited into Najib's account number 694 by Prince Faisal via two transactions on Feb 24, 2011 and June 14, 2011.

She also confirmed that on Oct 30, 2012 and Nov 19, 2012, US$4,999,988 and US $24,999,988 were transferred from Blackstone Asia Real Estate Partners (a company owned by Eric Tan, an associate of fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho or Jho Low) into Najib's account.

The court was also told that US$620 million was transferred into Najib's account from Tanore Finance Corp on March 22, 2013.

Wedani said this when reading out her witness statement at Najib's trial on the misappropriation of RM2.3 billion in funds from 1MDB.

During the morning proceedings, Labuan Financial Services Authority (LFSA) Business Policy Unit legal specialist Mohamed Fairudz Mohd Hanif, 38, confirmed that two companies, Good Star Limited and PetroSaudi International Limited (PSI), which received US$1.83 billion from 1MDB between 2009 and 2011, were dissolved in 2014 and 2015, respectively.

Good Star Limited, owned by Jho Low, was dissolved on May 2, 2014, while PSI, owned by Saudi-national Tarek Obaid was dissolved on April 8, 2015.

Mohamed Fairudz said LFSA received that information from the Seychelles Financial Services Authority (Seychelles FSA) after LFSA received an application from the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) to obtain information from four offshore countries for the 1MDB case.

"Those countries were the British Virgin Islands, Seychelles, Curacao and Cayman Islands. The MACC, which was representing the Malaysian government, applied to the LFSA to obtain information on Good Star Limited and PSI which were registered in Seychelles," he said.

The 28th prosecution witness said following this, he sent a letter dated Aug 10, 2018 to the chief executive officer of Seychelles FSA and also to its supervision manager before a reply from the Seychelles FSA was received two months after the application was made.

He said that according to the Seychelles FSA, the two companies on the Seychelles FSA company register have the same business address and used the same agent, Vistra (Seychelles) Limited (formerly known as Offshore Incorporations (Seychelles) Limited.

In earlier proceedings, former 1MDB chief executive officer Datuk Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi had told the court that US$1.83 billion of 1MDB funds were injected into PSI and Good Star Limited.

Najib, 68, is facing 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 before judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah continues on Monday.

-- BERNAMA