KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 18): Datuk Seri Najib Razak's former special aide today admitted in the High Court that he received money from fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho, when he accompanied the former premier to the United States.
Prosecution witness Datuk Amhari Efendi Nazaruddin admitted this when he was cross-examined by Najib's lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah about his trips with the former premier to the United States and the United Kingdom.
Shafee: You also received some money from Jho Low (Low Taek Jho)?
Amhari: I cannot remember.
Shafee: I suggest to you (that) in the past that you received money from the businessman.
Amhari: I may have received a few thousand US dollars, when I accompanied Najib to New York.
Shafee: There you met him (Jho Low)?
Amhari: Yes.
Shafee: Was the money given to you privately by the businessman or (did) other people in (the delegation) receive it?
Amhari: I received it privately from Jho Low, however I do not know about others.
Shafee: Did he give you money for other occasions?
Amhari: He may have during my trip to accompany the PM in the United Kingdom, where I met Jho Low there.
Shafee: So you claim money (for) the trips from the government and also in turn also got money from Jho Low during the trip?
Amhari: Yes.
Throughout the proceedings, the senior lawyer was trying to suggest the possibility that Amhari could have been indebted to the Penang-born businessman, which led him to take instructions from Jho Low at times, without clarifying them with Najib.
Last week, it was revealed that Amhari had also received US$200,000 (RM600,200) from Jho Low via his firm Alsen Chance Holdings Ltd.
According to Amhari's Maybank account, he received the funds on April 5, 2011, as a bridging loan for him to sell his house in Kota Damansara and purchase another one.
The witness admitted that he tried to sell the house and when Shafee pointed out that it was not feasible for the prospective purchasers – a pair of 24-year-olds – to buy the RM700,000 home, Amhari replied that the house was still his.
“There were no-one else who came to purchase the house,” he said.
Amhari, who knew Jho Low from 2008, joined Najib’s deceased chief private secretary Datuk Azlin Alias in late-night secret meetings with Jho Low, discussing 1MDB matters.
Jho Low stayed in touch with Amhari to facilitate 1MDB’s bailout plan, even after the fugitive financier left Malaysia on May 29, 2015.
The witness testified that besides his usual modus operandi of giving the witness hard copies of talking points and updates during the secret meetings, Jho Low also would send them as email attachments with passwords.
One exception was during Amhari’s “secret mission” to China in June 2016, where he alone represented Najib to cut infrastructure deals to bail 1MDB out of its debt woes, where Jho Low delivered the talking points by hand to him.
Some of these documents were seized by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) at Amhari’s house in the middle of last year.
They include 1MDB’s rationalisation plan, updates on China-Malaysia Economic Programme, Abu Dhabi-Malaysia Cooperation Timeline, question-and-answer on 1MDB/Yayasan Rakyat 1Malaysia, and briefings for two 1MDB management teams.
“[But] I did not give the [China envoy documents] to the MACC,” Amhari said, while also confirming it was his handwriting on the China-related documents.
Shafee questioned the authenticity of the documents given, that Amhari would usually shred documents given by Jho Low.
The High Court would be presented with MACC’s search list on Amhari’s house tomorrow.
Najib is currently facing 25 counts of money laundering and abuse of power, over alleged embezzlement of billions of ringgit from 1MDB.
See also:
1MDB-Tanore trial: Prosecution witness accused of concealing Jho Low's misrepresentation
1MDB-Tanore trial: Terengganu wanted to sell out TIA but MoF reluctant to buy, defence claims
The Edge is reporting the proceedings of the 1MDB-Tanore trial live.