This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on May 29, 2019

KUALA LUMPUR: Ihsan Perdana Sdn Bhd (IPSB) managing director (MD) Datuk Dr Shamsul Anwar Sulaiman said he was forced to follow orders when the company’s Affin Bank account was used as transit to transfer money.

During cross-examination on the 19th day of the trial by Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s lawyer Harvinderjit Singh, Shamsul revealed that he had a discussion with Yayasan Rakyat 1Malaysia (YR1M) project director Dennis See Thuan Buan after he was notified that YR1M would be “borrowing” IPSB’s account to transfer funds.

“How did the transactions transpire? What led you and Datuk Aziz (IPSB’s finance director Datuk Abdul Aziz Ismail) to sign the cheques for Mail Global Resources? You must have had a rough idea of what the money was for,” asked the lawyer.

“I didn’t know what the money was for and I didn’t know that the money was coming into IPSB’s account,” responded the witness, adding that he was not informed of anything about Mail Global Resources.

“Did you escalate the matter?” asked Harvinderjit.

Shamsul said he did escalate the issue and had asked See why IPSB’s account was being used to make transactions.

“I asked him, why us? We are only doing CSR (corporate social responsibility) projects so why use our account? He said he was just following orders and I need to follow his instructions,” said the witness, clarifying that he was obliged to follow the orders issued by See and former YR1M chief executive officer (CEO) Ung Su Ling, given that they were the funders for IPSB’s CSR programmes.

Dr Shamsul, had previously testified that he was asked by Ung to transfer sums of RM27 million and RM5 million on Dec 26, 2014 and another RM10 million on Feb 10, 2015, to AmBank accounts ending 880 and 906.

Based on previous testimonies, the accounts belonged to former premier Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

Yesterday Shamsul testified further that he attempted to inquire about the recipients of the cheques, but was frustrated by See, whose response was that Ihsan Perdana should just follow the instructions.

During cross-examination, Shamsul affirmed that he had signed 28 of Ihsan Perdana’s cheques amounting to RM73 million to Mail Global Resources.

In his witness statement, Shamsul further said that he believed Ung and See might also have followed instructions from the late Datuk Seri Azlin Alias, who was Najib’s private secretary at that time.

He said he only found out that a total of RM42 million came from SRC International Sdn Bhd’s accounts when the Wall Street Journal published the 1Malaysia Development Bhd money trail documents sometime in July 2015, when he was in Belgium.

He then called former SRC MD Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil after he returned to Malaysia to ask why he was not told of the source of the RM42 million.

While Nik Faisal confirmed that the money was indeed from SRC — which was transferred by SRC through its subsidiary Gandingan Mentari Sdn Bhd to Ihsan Perdana — Shamsul said he was not given any further explanation on the matter.

KWAP ex-CEO met Najib’s private secretary at hotel over SRC loan application

In the afternoon, Retirement Fund Inc (KWAP) former CEO Datuk Azian Mohd Noh testified that she met Azlin at a hotel in KL Sentral sometime in June 2011 regarding the loan sought by SRC.

Azian, who is the prosecution’s 38th witness, told the court presided by Justice Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali that she was asked to meet Azlin whom she had known for two years prior to 2011.

“There Azlin gave me a letter which was signed by SRC director Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil dated June 3, 2011 to Najib seeking a loan of RM3.95 billion.

“Azlin told me that Najib had agreed with the proposal by SRC where the letter was addressed to him and referred to a note made by Najib on the letter,” she said.

Azian said Najib made a note dated June 5, 2011 on the letter agreeing for SRC to be given a loan and wanted KWAP to consider giving the company the loan.

“When Najib as PM says he is agreeable to the proposal means that he is agreeable for KWAP to give the loan to SRC,” the former CEO added.

The witness, when asked by deputy public prosecutor Datuk Ishak Mohd Yusoff, agreed that SRC’s application did not meet KWAP’s requirements as SRC should itself make the application to KWAP and not through Najib who was the then prime minister and the finance minister.

Ishak: You say the application must be submitted to KWAP, so does this letter meet [the requirements of] KWAP’s investment policy?

Azian: Yes, it does not meet the requirements as it is not addressed to KWAP. Based on the procedures, it does not meet the requirements as it does not meet KWAP’s criteria [where the application must be made to KWAP].

Azian will continue with her examination-in-chief testimony today.