KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 30): The RM2.28 billion in the accounts of former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak is traceable to 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB), the High Court heard on Wednesday.
Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) analyst Adam Ariff Mohd Roslan said the funds Najib received in two of his personal AmBank accounts — AmIslamic Bank account ending 694 (AmPrivate Banking — MR) and account ending 880 (AmPrivate Banking — 1MY) — were traceable to four phases of the 1MDB scandal.
"In summary, it was found that the specified funds received by Najib, in his two above-said personal bank accounts at AmIslamic Bank, are traceable to the proceeds raised by 1MDB and its related companies in the four phases," the prosecution's 47th witness told the court during the 1MDB-Tanore trial.
The four phases
The four phases refer to the Good Star phase, the Aabar-BVI phase, the Tanore phase, and the options buy-back phase.
For the Good Star phase, he detailed that RM60,629,839.43 was credited to Najib's account (AmPrivate Banking — MR) between Feb 23, 2011 and June 14, 2011. The transaction was from an account at Riyad Bank, Saudi Arabia.
The witness testified that this sum was traceable to the issuance of 1MDB’s Islamic medium-term notes (IMTN) bond in 2009, and its syndicated term loan in 2010.
For the Aabar-BVI phase, the witness said that RM90,899,927.28 was credited to the same account between Oct 30, 2012 and Nov 20, 2012, from an account at Standard Chartered Bank, Singapore, in the name of Blackstone Asia Real Estate Partners.
This sum, the witness said, was traceable to the bond issued by 1MDB Energy (Langat) Ltd in 2012.
For the Tanore phase, Adam Ariff detailed that RM2,081,476,926.00 was credited to the same account between March 21, 2013 and April 10, 2013, from Falcon Private Bank, Singapore, in the name of Tanore Finance Corp.
For the options buy-back phase, the witness detailed two tranches of transactions. The first was RM4,093,500.00 credited to Najib's AmPrivate Banking — 1MY account on June 23, 2014.
This tranche was from DBS Bank, Singapore, in the name of Blackrock Commodities (Global) Ltd, and is found to be traceable to the US$250 million loan proceeds of 1MDB Energy Holdings Ltd in 2014.
The other tranche of RM45,837,485.70 was credited between Oct 23, 2014 and Dec 19, 2014 to Najib's AmPrivate Banking — 1MY, an account at Amicorp Bank, Barbados, in the name of Vista Equity International Partners Ltd.
Adam Ariff testified that this was partially traceable to the US$975 million loan proceeds of 1MDB Energy Holdings Ltd in 2014.
The total of these transactions is about RM2,282,937,678.
The late Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram, who was the lead prosecutor before his passing in January, also highlighted this in the prosecution's opening statement.
Analysis based on 343 documents
Adam Ariff, 29, said that he was seconded to the 1MDB task force of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) as an analyst.
He said that while he was seconded at the MACC, he was assigned by the investigating officer (IO), Senior Superintendent Nur Aida Arifin, to help in identifying the links between funds raised by 1MDB and the monies Najib received in his two personal bank accounts — the AmIslamic Bank account ending 694 (AmPrivate Banking — MR) and account ending 880 (AmPrivate Banking — 1MY).
He testified that he looked at 19 specific transactions from February 2011 to December 2014 in these two accounts totalling RM2.28 billion.
"In order for me to conduct the said analysis between June 2018 and November 2020, the IO provided multiple banking documentation to me as references," he said.
A total of 343 documents and records were involved in his analysis.
Adam Ariff started his career at the central bank as an intern at the Financial Intelligence and Enforcement Department in 2017.
At the end of his internship, he was absorbed into the organisation as an associate analyst in the same year.
In June 2018, he was seconded to the 1MDB task force of the MACC as an analyst. In 2019, he was promoted as an analyst at the central bank, and was later promoted to take on a managerial role in 2022.
Najib is on trial on four counts of abuse of power and 21 counts of money laundering involving RM2.28 billion of 1MDB funds.
The trial before judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah continues.
The Edge is covering the trial live here.
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