This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly on May 20, 2019 - May 26, 2019

THE focus of last week’s SRC International Sdn Bhd trial involving Datuk Seri Najib Razak was on Ihsan Perdana Sdn Bhd (IPSB), the company that deposited RM42 million in the former prime minister’s bank accounts with AmBank. Its managing director, Datuk Dr Shamsul Anwar Sulaiman, testified he was told that IPSB’s bank account would function as a transit stop before the funds were to be transferred out. But he said had he known the funds were to be transferred to Najib’s bank accounts, he would not have allowed it.

Earlier, during cross-examination by Najib’s lead counsel, Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, Shamsul was asked whether the words used in his written testimony prepared by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, were his own.

Shamsul, the 37th prosecution witness, agreed that they were, affirming his testimony during the prosecution’s examination-in-chief by deputy public prosecutor Muhammad Saifuddin Hashim Musaimi. This included the phase “Saya mengesahkan sekiranya saya tahu akaun AmPrivate banking adalah milik Najib, saya tidak akan membuat bayaran itu”.

Shamsul’s testimony was related to the three deposits made by IPSB — RM27 million and RM5 million to the AmBank Private Banking accounts with numbers ending 880 and 906 respectively on Dec 26, 2014, and an additional RM10 million to the account with number ending 880 on Feb 10, 2015.

Cross-examined by Muhammad Shafee earlier, the witness, who is also a Sungai Siput Umno Youth division leader, said he was first arrested by the MACC in 2015, and was remanded for four days. “I was remanded because the MACC wanted to know the origins of the funds transferred to the two accounts owned by Najib.”

Since the 14th general election, he said, he had been called in thrice by the MACC to have his statement recorded.

Involvement in corporate social responsibility activities

Shamsul also testified that notwithstanding the running of his own clinic in Kelana Jaya, he was interested in corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities as he had been involved in Mercy Malaysia missions in Kosovo, Aceh and Lebanon.

In addition, he had been actively involved in Umno Youth’s CSR activities overseas. When Najib became prime minister, he said, he was roped in to help with 1Malaysia Development Bhd’s CSR work and was appointed an executive director of 1MDB.

He further testified before judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali that the then 1MDB CEO Datuk Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi had suggested that a company or a separate entity be formed to undertake the CSR work to prevent any conflict of interest.

Shamsul said the 1MDB board of directors that agreed to the formation of a separate entity for CSR programmes comprised Najib, Tan Sri Lodin Wok Kamaruddin and Shahrol.

That entity was IPSB — formerly a shell company called Gem Horizon Sdn Bhd — and Shamsul was made its managing director while Datuk Abdul Aziz Ismail was appointed finance director.

Shamsul said the company received an annual grant of RM40 million from 2012, with RM20 million each coming from Yayasan 1MDB and Yayasan Rakyat 1Malaysia (YR1M), and another RM5 million set aside for operational expenses.

“In 2012 and 2013, being the period near the 13th general election, many CSR projects were carried out, including Nadi Kasih, which focused on renovating the homes of the poor; Jalinan Murni, on improving the welfare of the Orang Asli community; Ihsan Samudera, on helping the fisherfolk; Vitamin 1Malaysia, on dispensing vitamins to schoolchildren and renovating the Kampung Baru mosque; and the H2O project, on improving water supply in Sabah and Sarawak,” he said.

By Sept 3, 2014, he said, IPSB was appointed by SRC directors Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil and Datuk Suboh Md Yassin to undertake the company’s CSR activities.

Asked about deposits but no answer

Shamsul said on Dec 24, 2014, a total of RM40 million was deposited in IPSB’s account with Affin Bank and on Feb 5 and 6, 2015, two more transfers of RM5 million each were made into the account.

Prior to the RM40 million transaction, he said, YR1M project director Dennis See Thuan Buan met him at his office and informed him that IPSB’s account would be used to keep funds in transit before being transferred out.

On the total transfer of RM42 million, Shamsul said IPSB was told to deposit the amount into Najib’s AmBank account by YR1M CEO Ung Su Ling.

“I confirm that RM27 million was transferred to the AmBank account (with the last three digits being 880) on Ung’s instructions on Dec 26, 2014,” he said, adding that two days earlier, he had received an email from Ung asking IPSB to transfer RM40 million to the said account.

On the day he received the email, the witness said, See came to his office and informed him that RM40 million had been deposited in IPSB’s account and that he was to follow Ung’s instruction in the email to transfer the sum to the “880” account.

“This was despite me not knowing the purpose of the payment ... I was following the directives of Ung and See. I thought the transfer to the 880 account was for CSR purposes as Ung and See would usually give such directions for CSR programmes,” Shamsul said.

“I also asked senior account executive Aishah Ghazali to enquire who the owner of the 880 account was. She told me that Affin Bank could not disclose such information to third parties. I made a similar request to Abdul Aziz, but he did not inform [me about] the results of the checks.

“I confirm that had I known that the account belongs to Najib, I would not have made the RM27 million payment. Najib had not contacted me about the payment of RM27 million.”

He added that similar payments of RM5 million and RM10 million were made to the 906 account (on Dec 26, 2014) and the 880 account (Feb 9, 2015) respectively, with the transactions reflected only the day after.

Shamsul said while he had questions on the two transactions, he allowed IPSB’s account to be used for the transfers, but maintained that had he known that the accounts belonged to Najib, he would not have made the payments. “I merely followed the instructions of Ung and See, who are directors of YR1M, which contributed to IPSB’s coffers.

“I think Ung and See transferred the funds at the direction of Datuk Seri Azlin Alias, who was the principal private secretary of the [then] prime minister.”

Azlin died along with former science, technology and innovation minister Datuk Seri Jamaluddin Jarjis in a helicopter crash in Semenyih, Selangor, in April 2015.

Prior to Shamsul’s testimony, Aishah told the court that she was asked by Shamsul to prepare remittance forms for the transfer of funds and that the three transfers to the 880 and 906 accounts on Dec 26, 2014, and the 880 account on Feb 9, 2015, were indicated as for CSR programmes.

Aishah was also asked during cross-examination by lawyer Harvinderjit Singh whether the funds were from Gandingan Mentari Sdn Bhd, to which she replied that she did not know as there were no records.

The hearing continues on May 28.

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