KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 7): Ex-prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak agreed with the prosecution's suggestion that Low Taek Jho, Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil and the late Datuk Azlin Alias were tasked with managing Najib's bank accounts.
Najib said this today at the High Court here during the SRC International Sdn Bhd trial before High Court Judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali. Najib is facing seven charges involving the misappropriation of RM42 million from 1Malaysia Development Bhd's former subsidiary SRC.
During cross-examination, deputy public prosecutor Datuk V Sithambaram questioned Najib about the accounts and how he kept issuing cheques despite claiming ignorance on how the accounts were managed by Low, Nik Faisal and Azlin.
Fugitive businessman Low is also known as Jho Low, while Nik Faisal is the former managing director and chief executive officer of SRC. The late Azlin was Najib's former principal private secretary.
During today's cross-examination, Najib said the SRC monies were not for his personal use and that the funds were transferred into his account without his knowledge.
Sithambaram: I understand that, Datuk Seri. I am asking you whether you were the sole beneficiary of the monies.
Najib: The monies were transferred to my account without my knowledge. But I used the money for specific purposes.
Sithambaram: You were the beneficiary.
Najib: If the definition of beneficiary is that the money went into my account, then yes. It went into my account without my knowledge.
Sithambaram subsequently suggested that there is no reason for Nik Faisal or Azlin to hide the transfer of the money from Najib. The former premier, however, disagreed with Sithambaram's suggestion.
Sithambaram: I put to you that it was the job of Jho Low, Nik Faisal and Datuk Azlin to make sure you had funds in the account. It was their job.
Najib: They managed my account, yes. But to what extent Nik Faisal dealt with Jho Low, I had no idea.
Sithambaram: I'm just putting it to you that it was you that gave the job to Jho Low, Nik Faisal and Datuk Azlin to make sure you have enough funds in the account.
Najib: But the money has to be from legitimate sources. I would never have asked them to do something illegal.
Sithambaram: So you agree that you spent money from so-called illegitimate sources?
Najib: I spent the money but at the material time, I did not know the source of the funds.
Najib said he only found out about the source of the funds when it became a big issue. He reiterated that he had no knowledge of the funds and said there is no evidence to show otherwise.
Sithambaram cited Ihsan Perdana Sdn Bhd managing director Datuk Dr Shamsul Anuar Sulaiman's testimony, in which Najib is said to have expressed shock when the former prime minister was told about the transfer of SRC money into his account.
Sithambaram suggested that the logical thing to do was to return the money, although Najib said the money was subjected to investigation.
Sithambaram: You already know that it was SRC's money. The logical thing was to return it!
Najib: I thought that it could be [from SRC] but it was (the) subject of investigation.
Sithambaram: As finance minister, this money should be returned to SRC, which was an MoF Inc (Minister of Finance Inc) company.
Najib: It was subject to investigation. I did not return the money, I wanted to see the outcome of the investigation.
The Edge is reporting the proceedings of the SRC trial live.