This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on July 16, 2019

KUALA LUMPUR: Transactions from accounts linked to fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho — better known as Jho Low — into the AmBank account of Datuk Seri Najib Razak in 2015 included transaction details which described them as loan payments, and not donations as the former prime minister had previously claimed.

This was confirmed by Wedani Senen, the 24th prosecution witness in Najib’s SRC trial. The AmBank electronic transfer and securities unit manager was called into the witness stand again yesterday.

The transactions in question — from Vista Equity International Partners (Seychelles) and Blackrock Commodities Global Ltd — amounted to over RM50 million between June and December 2014.

Two of the transactions included the descriptions for “loan purposes”, Wedani told senior prosecutor Datuk V Sithambaram during her re-examination.

“Is there anywhere that says the purpose of payments were gifts or donation?” asked Sithambaram.

“No,” answered Wedani.

The US Department of Justice has identified the two entities — Blackrock Commodities and Vista Equity — as being owned by one Eric Tan, who was later revealed to be Jho Low using his close associate’s identity, according to news reports.

Blackrock Commodities is not tied to US fund management firm Blackrock Inc.

Earlier, defence counsel Harvinderjit Singh suggested to the 46th prosecution witness, Shuzairizman Shuib, that the three AmBank relationship managers — Krystale Yap, Joanna Yu and Daniel Lee — would have communicated through BlackBerry, WhatsApp and Telegram chatting applications.

This was after Harvinderjit highlighted certain parts where one person told Yu via BlackBerry messenger that the person would send a WhatsApp message to Yu, which implied she had a WhatsApp application, and another where Yu said she would Telegram the person she was communicating with.

In response, Shuzairizman, who is Bank Negara Malaysia’s financial intelligence and enforcement department analyst, said it is “most likely” that the three AmBank managers used the three applications, though he cannot recall.

At this juncture, Sithambaram alleged the defence was conducting  a fishing expedition, and requested the court to ask Harvinderjit to identify what he was looking for as the prosecution witness had already produced the communications record deemed related to the trial.