KUALA LUMPUR (July 3): SRC International Sdn Bhd chairman Datuk Suboh Md Yassin said he did not know the management team of the company, calling them “very scanty people”, when asked by the defence if he was familiar with the team.

As cross-examination continued, Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s lawyer Harvinderjit Singh asked whether Suboh had met any of the other directors of SRC — namely Datuk Che Abdullah@Rashidi Che Omar, Tan Sri Ismee Ismail, Shahrol Azral Halmi and Nik Faisal Ariff — before he attended his first board meeting on Aug 23, 2011.

Suboh said he met all of the directors for the first time during the Aug 23, 2011 board meeting, except for Ismee, whom he had met previously.

He was then asked if he had met the management team of SRC, apart from Nik Faisal at the meeting.

“I don’t know whether there was a management team or not. I saw only Nik Faisal,” Suboh said.

“Did this happen only during your first meeting or throughout?” asked the lawyer.

“On most occasions, I do not know who the management team is. Very scanty people,” responded the witness, referring to the inadequate information about the team.

When asked, Suboh said he had met Terence Geh, although he was not clear of what Geh’s role was or even if he was in SRC or 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB), and had also met Zahid Taib — who was described as Nik Faisal’s “multipurpose” guy by 29th prosecution witness Amirul Imran Ahmat, who was an assistant vice-president at the Retirement Fund (Incorporated) (KWAP) which loaned SRC RM4 billion from 2011 to 2012 — at the SRC office in Bangsar.

Suboh has also met Vincent Koh Beng Huat, who formed SRC with Nik Faisal, at one of the company’s board meetings.

“I met these people but I don’t know what they were doing,” Suboh said.

Later, the defence pointed out that Nik Faisal had ceased to be the chief executive officer and managing director of SRC effective Aug 11, 2014, and asked whether the witness was aware of this.

Suboh said he was aware of Nik Faisal stepping down as CEO, with Harvinderjit then suggesting that the perception that Nik Faisal had authority over the board had ended after he left the post.

However, Suboh said this was not necessarily the case, as Nik Faisal was still an executive director on the board.

The witness was also shown a cheque from an account ending 736 belonging to SRC, for a RM20 million transaction to Ihsan Perdana Sdn Bhd, to which Suboh is not a signatory.

The account was opened by Datuk Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi, the former CEO of 1Malaysia Development Bhd, which was the parent of SRC.

Suboh said he does not know about the account and maintained his position when shown a set of transaction statements of the account.

However, Suboh’s signature was present on the cheque.

“It cannot be your signature. You couldn’t have signed a cheque from an account you didn’t know about,” said Harivnderjit, to the witness’ agreement.