KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 9): It was revealed at the High Court on Thursday that former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak spent RM80,000 from his personal AmBank account ending “9694” codenamed “AmPrivate Banking-MR” for leukaemia supplements to help prevent him from getting the cancer which afflicted his late father Tun Abdul Razak Hussein.

During the 1Malaysia Development Bhd-Tanore (1MDB-Tanore) trial before judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah, Assistant Commissioner of Police Foo Wei Min — the 48th prosecution witness — was cross-examined by Najib’s lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah.

They were going through statements which Foo had recorded from Najib in August 2018 in relation to the police investigation into 1MDB funds.

Foo had asked Najib about his private AmBank accounts, specifically the “9694” account and its inflows and outflows of money.

During the cross-examination, Shafee zeroed in on an RM80,000 cheque that Najib had written and paid to a company called Vital Spire Sdn Bhd which was issued by Najib in 2013.

Shafee then asked Foo if Najib told him what the payment was for. Foo replied in the affirmative.

Shafee said that Najib spent a total of slightly less than RM1 million for cancer medication with Vital Spire, where the doctor had urged him to take this course of treatment.

The doctor said it was important that Najib took the medication to prevent leukaemia, which killed his father Tun Abdul Razak.

Shafee then asked Foo if Najib had told him that he used the money from the “9694” account to pay Vital Spire for the treatments, because he did not want to burden the government even though he could have charged his medical bills to the public health service as a sitting prime minister.

“Remember Najib told you that he could have taken this treatment from the government, but he didn’t have the heart to burden the government, so he took it from money that he thought were donations?" Shafee asked.

“I think he did mention that,” said Foo.

Foo then elaborated that he had also cross-checked the payments Najib had made to Vital Spire and they confirmed that the payments were for supplementary vitamins for prevention of cancer, as well as other supplements for his health.

He said the RM80,000 was just the first payment Najib made to Vital Spire in 2013. There were other payments as well.

This is not the first time Vital Spire has been mentioned in connection to Najib. In the SRC International Sdn Bhd trial in 2020 — where Najib was found guilty of seven charges of criminal breach of trust and money laundering, and was slapped with a 12-year jail sentence, which he is currently serving — it was alleged by the prosecution that another cheque which Najib issued to Vital Spire was for the operation of a political news portal.

However, Najib disagreed with the allegation. Najib had explained then that Vital Spire dealt with medicine to treat leukaemia.

A previous witness in the trial, Datuk Onn Hafiz Ghazi, a shareholder of Vital Spire, disclosed in his witness statement that Vital Spire received a cheque for RM240,000 to run news portal malaysiandigest.com, as instructed by Najib in 2015.

He said the news portal covered international and local news, and was set up to disseminate news and combat "fake news". However, it was shut down in July 2018.

Onn Hafiz, 41, is a nephew of former Umno vice-president Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein and great-grandson of Umno founder Datuk Onn Jaafar.

Shafee then asked Foo if he thought that labelling Najib a “kleptocrat” was correct.

He argued that Najib had spent most of the money in his “9694” account for political purposes, except for the payments to Vital Spire.

“Najib did not spend the money personally, but only spent it for political purposes and CSR (corporate social responsibility), not for personal gain," said the lawyer, to which Foo replied in the affirmative.

Shafee: Looking at all this, the accusation that Najib is a kleptocrat is wrong?

Foo: We (the police) are focusing on our investigation. That is the purpose of the investigating officer of the case. I’m not in the position to comment.

Najib is on trial over four counts of abuse of power and 21 counts of money laundering involving RM2.28 billion from 1MDB, a sovereign wealth fund fully owned by the Minister of Finance Incorporated (MOF Inc).

The trial continues on Nov 14 before Sequerah.

The Edge is covering the trial live here.

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