This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly on August 26, 2019 - September 1, 2019

A substantial chunk of the RM612 million exhausted by Datuk Seri Najib Razak in 2014 and 2015 was spent on political and corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes or given out as donations, and not spent on the former prime minister himself, his defence team argued last Friday during cross-examination of the final prosecution witness, Rosli Hussain, in Najib’s SRC International trial.

His lawyer, Farhan Read, listed RM29.63 million for charities and RM84 million for political use and other social causes. In addition, he said, funds were also donated by Najib to Yayasan Permata, Yayasan Rahah and Yayasan Semesta.

Farhan contended that Najib’s personal expenditure only amounted to less than 2% of the more than RM200 million that he had purportedly spent on political and CSR programmes.

He said the 1.9% of funds used included RM233,000 on renovations to his houses in Jalan Langgak Duta and Pekan, Pahang, and RM3.2 million to purchase jewellery, which he put on his credit cards.

Even then, the jewellery from de Grisogono, Italy — purchased on Aug 8, 2014, when Najib and his wife, Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, were in the country on holiday — was a gift for Qatar Prime Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani, Farhan asserted, in order to maintain good ties with the Gulf state.

A thank-you note was subsequently received by the couple from the Qatar prime minister’s wife (Noor Abdulaziz Abdulla Turki Al-Subaie), he said. Farhan produced the note in court.

However, the letter was only marked as an identifying document and not as evidence, although lawyer-cum-appointed prosecutor Datuk V Sithambaram said he was prepared for the letter to be marked as evidence if the defence decides to call the Qatar PM’s wife as a defence witness.

IO contends Saudi funds used up by June 2014

Rosli, a senior assistant commissioner with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, and the investigating officer (IO) in the SRC case, told Farhan that he did not investigate the jewellery purchased in Italy.

“I remember that Najib brought up the matter. However, Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor did not mention anything about the letter,” he said.

In fact, Rosli said, money purportedly from the Saudis had been fully utilised by June 2014, before Najib’s Italian trip. According to his investigations, funds used by Najib after June belonged to SRC.

“It had been used up in June 2014 and what is left was SRC’s money,” Rosli said. He pointed out that SRC’s funds were the remit of his investigations after Najib’s lead counsel, Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, attempted to discredit him by implying that his investigations were not complete as he had not fully probed into the Saudi donations.

Last Thursday, under cross-examination, Rosli acknowledged a purported donation of RM369 million to Najib from Prince Faisal Al Turkey as well as another of RM243 million from the “Riyadh Finance Ministry”, both amounts deposited in 2011 in Najib’s AmBank account ending with digits 694.

However, he explained that he had not further investigated the purported donations as they fell under the purview of another IO (named Aida) because the transactions were categorised under the so-called “Tanore phase” of the 1Malaysia Development Bhd case. (Najib also faces 25 criminal charges over the misappropriation of 1MDB funds, and the hearing begins on Wednesday.)

In Farhan’s cross-examination of Rosli, he brought up a number of cheques issued by Najib in 2014 and 2015 to highlight that the funds were used for political purposes as several political entities and organisations, including think tanks, received funds.

Rosli indicated he had investigated the political donations and the purported donations to think tanks, including RM655,000 from Najib to former Foreign Correspondents Club of Malaysia president Romen Bose when he was attached to Nevis Associates Ltd.

Farhan pointed out that Najib also made donations to Manisah Othman, the wife of a two-decade-long employee of Najib’s who died of colon cancer.

The defence also attempted to pin the blame on the misappropriation of SRC’s funds on Penang-born businessman Low Taek Jho — believed to be the mastermind behind the heist but now in hiding — but Rosli maintained that if anything, the theft of the funds was to benefit Najib.

The prosecution’s case is expected to continue before judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali on Tuesday and to conclude on the same day.

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