Over RM1 million deposited into Rosmah's account between 2014 and 2017 - Witness

KUALA LUMPUR: A bank officer today told the High Court here that a sum of RM1.09 million was deposited into Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor's personal current account at Affin Bank Berhad account through several transactions between Oct 2014 and June 2017.

Affin Bank Berhad's ATM (Automated Teller Machine) Services and Support assistant manager Nor Ashikin Abdullah, 58, who confirmed the matter said the money was deposited into Rosmah's account number 10-002000005-8 (account 0058) through cash deposit machines (CDM) at several Affin Bank branches, including Bangunan Getah Asli in Bangsar and Lembaga Tabung Angkatan Tentera (LTAT) in Kuala Lumpur

She also told the court that in November 2018, she had received a request from the Anti-Money Laundering/Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AMLA/CFT) Unit of the bank to obtain information regarding records of cash deposit transactions using the CDM for Rosmah's account.

"For the purpose, I accessed Affin Bank's electronic records to obtain the requested information and then printed the report for cash deposit transactions using CDM for account 0058 from the electronic records using the computer in the office," she said, adding that the statement was then handed over to Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) officials.

The first prosecution witness was reading her witness statement on the first day of the trial of Rosmah, who has been charged with 12 counts of money laundering involving RM7,097,750 and five charges of failing to declare her income to the Inland Revenue Board (LHDN).

Meanwhile, the second prosecution witness, a former official at the Seri Perdana Complex, told the court that he once helped his superior, Roslan Sohari (residential manager of the Seri Perdana Complex) to deposit cash into the same bank account belonging to Rosmah.

Faizal Shamsuddin, 48, said he had received instructions to deposit the money from Roslan, and the latter had handed him an envelope containing cash, whereby Rosmah's bank account number was written on the envelope.

"Mr. Roslan has asked me to hand over the envelope containing the cash to the officer at Affin Bank to manage the deposit.

"I have identified the first document, which is the Affin Bank deposit slip which shows a cash deposit of RM 200,000.00 on June 17, 2015, into Rosmah's account and based on my handwriting on this deposit slip, I can confirm that this cash deposit was made by me on the instructions of Mr Roslan," he said.

Earlier, before the commencement of the trial, deputy public prosecutor Ahmad Akram Gharib had asked the court to postpone today's proceedings as they needed time to consider a representation letter dated Aug 18 that was sent by Rosmah's solicitors. The request was not objected to by the defence's lead counsel Datuk Geethan Ram Vincent.

However, Judge K.Muniandy rejected the prosecution's request and ordered the trial to proceed on the grounds that the charges against Rosmah were filed in 2018.

Meanwhile, another of Rosmah's lawyers, Datuk Firoz Hussein Ahmad Jamaluddin informed the court that the defence would file an application to strike out all the charges that were filed against his client on or before Sept 7.

The judge then vacated tomorrow's trial date and set Sept 7 and 8 for continuation of the trial.

Rosmah, 71, is facing 12 money laundering charges involving RM7,097,750, and five counts of failure to declare her income to the LHDN.

The wife of former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak was alleged to have committed the offences at Affin Bank Berhad, Bangunan Getah Asli branch, Jalan Ampang here between Dec 4, 2013 and June 8, 2017, and at LHDN Kompleks Bangunan Kerajaan, Jalan Tuanku Abdul Halim here between May 1, 2014 and May 1, 2018.

-- BERNAMA