KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 13): Despite maintaining that the billions of ringgit at the centre of the 1Malaysia Development Bhd-Tanore (1MDB-Tanore) trial that went into his personal accounts were part of an Arab donation, former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak had never officially acknowledged or sent a thank-you note to the Arabs in return for the supposed donation, according to Malaysia Anti-Corruption Commission’s (MACC) investigating officer Nur Aida Arifin.
“We investigated but we didn’t find any letters addressed to Arab Saudi to indicate that he (Najib) had received the donations,” Nur Aida told the court on Tuesday, in response to the prosecution’s query on the now four letters detailing the donations that Najib claimed he had received from the Arabs.
The four letters are central to Najib’s defence, which claimed that the monies that ended up in his personal accounts were donations from the former governor of the Madinah Province, Saud Abdulaziz Majid Al Saud. The four letters that were previously produced in court stated that the money was given to Najib, with no strings attached, in recognition of the former prime minister’s contribution to the Islamic world, and that there was no expectation for the money to be returned.
Najib received US$681 million, or over RM2 billion, over a period of four years from 2011 to 2014. He maintained that he had “returned” US$620 million to the donor through Tanore Finance Corp (Tanore), a company owned by fugitive businessman Low Taek Jhow’s (Jho Low) close associate, Eric Tan Kim Loong.
Zeroing in on the return of the said funds, deputy public prosecutor Ahmad Akram Ghaib asked if there was any form of acknowledgement from the Saudi side that they had received the funds. To this, the witness also answered in the negative.
“None, because the money was sent to Tanore Finance Corp,” she said.
Nur Aida also testified that Najib still received more funds after the “donations” were returned in 2013. The MACC investigating officer said that Najib received funds in 2014 through Blackrock Commodities and Vista Equity, which are both owned by Tan.
Akram: Not Arab ya?
Nur Aida: No.
Nur Aida also testified that Najib had never lodged any complaints to any authorities to investigate Jho Low or any other 1MDB officers.
The defence will be cross-examining Nur Aida at a later date.
Najib is facing 25 counts of graft in relation to the US$681 million that ended up in his personal accounts — four for abuse of power and 21 for money laundering — in the 1MDB-Tanore trial, so named due to the fact that they involved transactions between 1MDB and Tanore.
The trial before judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah continues on Wednesday (Feb 14).
The Edge is covering the trial live here.
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