KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 24): A witness at Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor’s second criminal trial on Thursday (Aug 24) told the court that he deposited an envelope of cash totalling RM200,000 into Rosmah’s account in June 2015.
The prosecution’s second witness in Rosmah’s RM 7.1 million money laundering and tax evasion trial, Faizal Shamsuddin, once served as operations manager in the operations management department of the Seri Perdana complex in Putrajaya while Rosmah's husband, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, was still the prime minister.
Faizal, 49 however, was not aware that the envelope contained cash until the bank officer had opened the envelope.
Reading from his witness statement on Thursday, Faisal testified that he had deposited money into Rosmah’s Affin Bank account on June 17, 2015, under the direction of Roslan Sohari, the then residential manager of the Seri Perdana complex.
He said that Roslan had given him an envelope with Rosmah’s account details written on it and asked him to pass it to the bank officer.
“One the same day, I had passed the envelope to a bank officer in Affin Bank, Bangunan Getah Asli, Kuala Lumpur, to be deposited into Rosmah’s bank account,” he said.
In reply to deputy public prosecutor (DPP) Poh Yih Tinn’s query, Faisal said that he was only aware of the contents of the said envelope, after the bank officer opened it at the bank.
He also testified that he had filled a deposit form and put Rosmah’s name in the form, while the rest were filled by the bank officer.
“I don’t know the source of the money and the purpose of the cash which I deposited into Rosmah’s account. Roslan also did not inform me of the source or the purpose of the money,” said the army veteran.
In the prosecution’s opening statement, they have stated that Rosmah had no independent source of income, nor was she gainfully employed but had “deposited large sums of monies” through Roslan.
The prosecution also stated that the totality of the evidence, when considered as a whole, supports the “irresistible inference” that the deposits in question were proceeds of unlawful activity.
Faizal’s testimony on Thursday makes up a portion of these monies deposited into Rosmah’s current account ending-0058 at Affin Bank Bhd.
In this trial, Rosmah faces 17 charges in total. The first till the 12th charge concerns money laundering amounting to RM7.1 million, while the 13th-17th charge concerns not declaring the said deposits as revenue to the Inland Revenue Board (IRB).
Thursday also saw the testimony of the prosecution’s first witness Nor Ashikin Abdullah, assistant manager of ATM services and support at Affin Bank headquarters in KL, who verified the deposits made into the said account from October 2014 to June 2017, totalling RM1,098,200.
Nor Ashikin, 59, testified that she had access to transaction records of deposits made through the cash deposit machine.
She said that in November 2018, she had received a request from Affin Bank’s Anti-Money Laundering Unit to get the records of the said account. She had later passed the list of the records to the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC).
Earlier, both the prosecution and the defence had sought for an adjournment of the trial, as the former first lady’s counsels had sent two letters of representation over the charges she faces in this trial.
However, High Court judge K Muniandy was reluctant and made a ruling that to be fair to the accused and the court, it ought to go on as scheduled.
One of Rosmah’s counsels, Datuk Firoz Hussein Ahmad Jamaluddin then indicated that they will be filing an application for the charges to be struck out. Hence, they have also reserved cross examination for the two witnesses today.
The defence also informed the court on Thursday that they will file and serve the said application on or before Sept 7.
The court then vacated Friday (Aug 25)’s hearing and a case management has been set for Sept 7.
This is Rosmah’s second criminal trial. In September last year, the High Court found Rosmah guilty of all three counts of graft relating to a solar hybrid graft project for 369 schools in rural Sarawak. She was sentenced to 10 years in jail and fined RM970 million.
A stay was granted, pending the disposal of her appeal.
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