KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 20): The High Court here was told on Wednesday that US$681 million (RM2.08 billion) was deposited into former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s AmBank personal accounts in early 2013.
During the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB)-Tanore trial, the prosecution’s 47th witness on the stand, Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) analyst Adam Ariff Mohd Roslan, testified on the trail of money which led to this huge sum of money being deposited into Najib’s accounts.
Referring to a 76-page money trail report he had prepared, Adam was walking prosecutors through the third phase, namely the "Tanore" phase of the 1MDB scandal, where there was an issuance of a US$3 billion bond by 1MDB via its wholly owned subsidiary, 1MDB Global Investment Ltd (1GIL), in 2013. Goldman Sachs acted as the arranger of the loan.
The then lead prosecutor, the late Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram, in his opening statement for the trial in 2019 said that the third phase concerned a purported joint venture (JV) called ADMIC between 1MDB and Aabar in equal shares.
The purpose of this purported JV was to develop the Tun Razak Exchange (TRX) in Kuala Lumpur. The International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC) was to guarantee Aabar's investment, while the Ministry of Finance guaranteed 1MDB's investment by way of a letter of support.
Continuing from where he left off at the trial from the day before, Adam testified on how US$681 million from the US$3 billion flowed through different entities and ended up in Najib's private bank accounts.
Of the US$3 billion, a sum of US$2.721 billion was disbursed into the account of 1GIL with BSI Bank at Lugano in Switzerland. The balance went to pay the fee for Goldman Sachs.
Adam testified that a total of US$646,464,549 was credited to a fiduciary fund named Devonshire Funds Ltd through five transactions on March 21, 2013.
The witness said that Devonshire's bank statement and records also reflect this. He added that the nominal value of subscriptions to Devonshire was US$640 million.
Adam further testified through his report that on the same day, Devonshire received these funds from 1GIL, and bank statements and records show that Devonshire then transferred the total nominal value of subscriptions of US$640 million to Tanore Finance Corporation and Granton Property Holding Ltd.
The transfers were done in two tranches: US$210,000,000 to Tanore, and US$430,000,000 to Granton.
He added that Granton then transfered the US$430,000,000 to Tanore on the same day (March 21, 2013), "without any balance in its account".
"In effect, Tanore received US$640 million in total from 1GIL via Devonshire," the witness said, adding that Tanore's bank statement with Falcon Bank also confirmed this.
Both Granton and Tanore were companies controlled by Eric Tan Kim Loong (the beneficial owner and authorised person), a close associate of fugitive financier Low Taek Jho (Jho Low), according to Adam.
The witness then testified that Tanore transferred US$681 million to Najib's AmPrivate Banking-MR account between March 22 and April 10, 2013.
He said that on the same day (March 21, 2013), Tanore received the US$640 million. Tanore, he said, instructed Falcon Bank to transfer US$681 million to Najib's account (the AmIslamic account ending 694, AmPrivate Banking-MR) "as soon as possible".
Following this, US$620 million was transferred immediately on the same day.
Deputy public prosecutor Kamal Baharin Omar then asked why only US$620 million was transferred, when the instruction was to transfer US$681 million.
"The remaining US$61 million was transferred at a later date, March 25," Adam said.
The witness testified that on or about March 22, 2013, AmIslamic received the US$620 million transfer — as per Tanore's instruction — to the AmPrivate Banking-MR account.
A total of RM1,893,474,962.98 equivalent to US$619,999,988 (the US$620 million) was credited into the account.
"As set forth above, the receipt of the bond proceeds into 1GIL’s account and the transfer of funds via Devonshire and Granton to Tanore, and then the eventual transfer of US$620 million from Tanore to the account of AmPrivate Banking-MR, took place within or about the same day," the witness testified.
He added that Najib's bank statement and records for this specific account also reflect this. The sum was broken down into eight tranches and transferred between March 22 and April 10, 2013.
The trial before judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah then broke for lunch. Adam will list how the remaining US$61 million ended up in Najib’s accounts.
Adam’s testimony corroborates with Sri Ram’s opening statement
The late Sri Ram had said that Najib issued a letter of support from the Ministry of Finance (as he was the finance minister at that time) to guarantee 1MDB’s investment. A loan of US$3 billion was allegedly raised for this purpose from the Bank of New York Mellon Group. Goldman Sachs acted as the arranger of the loan.
Of the US$3 billion, a sum of US$2.721 billion was disbursed into the account of 1GIL with BSI Bank at Lugano in Switzerland. The balance went to pay the fee for Goldman Sachs.
And of the US$2.721 billion, a sum of US$1,060,606,065 was paid into the accounts of two fiduciary funds, namely Devonshire and Enterprise Emerging Markets Fund (EEMF). Devonshire received US$646,464,649 in five tranches over two days, on March 20 and 21, 2013. EEMF received US$414,141,416 in three tranches, also within the same two days.
On March 21, 2013, Devonshire transferred US$430 million to Granton.
On the same day, Granton transferred the whole of that sum to Tanore — also a company controlled by Tan. Additionally, Devonshire transferred US$210 million to Tanore. Then, between March 22 and 25, 2013, EEMF transferred US$250 million to Tanore.
Tanore then transferred RM2.08 billion from its accounts into Najib’s private accounts.
While Najib got the money, the JV never took off, according to Sri Ram previously.
Najib had maintained that the money was a donation from the Saudi royal family, without naming the company or account holder that the money was sent from. He also said that he had returned the money to the Saudi royal family, which was allegedly the RM2.03 billion going out to Tanore Singapore’s account.
Witness testifies where remaining US$61 million from US$681 million came into Najib’s accounts
1GIL had also subscribed to the investment funds of EEMF and Cistenique, with the nominal value of subscriptions at US$410 million and US$525 million respectively, Adam said.
On or about March 22, 2013, EEMF and Cistenique sent US$250 million and US$375 million respectively to Tanore, as confirmed by Tanore’s bank statements on March 25, 2013.
While the monies from EEMF and Cistenique were transferred on the same day, the funds used by Tanore to transfer monies to Najib did not include monies from Cistenique as the funds only came in later.
On the same day, Tanore utilised the funds it received from EEMF and Granton to send the remaining US$61 million to the AmPrivate Banking-MR account under the aforementioned US$681 million transfer instruction.
"On March 26, 2013, AmIslamic credited the AmPrivate Banking-MR account with RM188,001,963.02, equivalent to US$60,999,988, as shown in the bank statement and records," Adam said.
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