KUALA LUMPUR (May 30): Former Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) governor Tan Sri Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz told the High Court that 80% of AmBank’s wrongdoing during the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) debacle happened during AmBank group managing director Ashok Ramamurthy’s tenure, and that his statement, which was recorded by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), was a “cover up”.
Zeti, who is the 46th prosecution witness in the 1Malaysia Development Bhd-Tanore (1MDB-Tanore) trial, had resumed her testimony on the stand at the trial on Thursday, where she was asked about the statement which was taken from Ashok by the MACC when he was residing in Singapore. The statement was recorded on March 11, 2019, by MACC investigating officer Nur Aida Arifin in Singapore.
According to lead defence counsel in the case Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, who obtained the MACC statement, Ashok had said that he and his then-predecessor Cheah Tek Kuang had gone to see Zeti on Sept 21, 2012. Zeti claims that this was merely a courtesy call from the two men.
She said that Ashok had lied in his statement to cover up his wrongdoings in AmBank by remitting funds accrued from PetroSaudi International.
She said that Ashok had seen the wrongdoing of 1MDB from the very beginning, before he took over from Cheah. She also said that other banking institutions had flagged the remittance from PetroSaudi into a fake entity called Good Star Ltd controlled by fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho (Jho Low).
“In the case of other financial institutions, they saw that the money was going to this entity called Good Star, and they did their due diligence… The fraud by AmBank is that they were remitting money to Good Star, and they did not do due diligence,” she said.
She added that AmBank had been remitting 1MDB funds to Good Star by writing that the money was going into a legitimate entity, PetroSaudi Ltd.
“They (AmBank) fabricated that the money was going into PetroSaudi. It is a serious offence, they gave wrong information,” she said.
Despite having his statement recorded by the MACC, Ashok had declined to testify in the trial, and he is not listed as a prosecution witness.
Zeti was responding to deputy public prosecutor Ahmad Akram Gharib’s re-examination.
Akram then asked Zeti about the fines AmBank had to pay to the Malaysian government.
It was reported in 2021 that AMMB Holdings Bhd had agreed to pay RM2.83 billion to the Malaysian government as settlement on all outstanding claims and actions in relation to AmBank Group's involvement in the 1MDB corruption scandal. It also had to pay BNM RM53.7 million for non-compliance with certain regulations by AmBank (M) Bhd and AmBank Islamic Bhd.
Akram: Was it the fault [the non-compliance] that caused AmBank to pay the highest ever penalty in history of the country? Was it during Ashok’s tenure, was it his fault?
Zeti: Yes, 80% of it was during his time, and the most serious fault is reporting false information.
Zeti was then released from the stand as a witness.
Najib is on trial on four counts of abuse of power and 21 counts of money laundering involving RM2.28 billion of 1MDB funds.