1MDB-Tanore: Najib maintains belief that funds were donations

Sunday 19 Jan 2025

KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 2): Former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak has maintained that funds at the heart of the 25 charges he faces in the 1Malaysia Development Bhd-Tanore (1MDB-Tanore) trial were donations from the Middle East.

Testifying in his own defence, Najib said that he had a private meeting with Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah in 2010, where Najib was specifically told that he would be assisted in the upcoming 2013 general election to ensure his return to power.

"Prior to those remittances, I was personally informed by [King Abdullah] during a private audience with him back in 2010, where he conveyed through interpreters his intention that he would be supporting me financially, and I have in fact received remittances from the Riyad Bank in Saudi Arabia.

"At the meeting with King Abdullah, I was told specifically that I would be assisted in my coming election (the general election) to ensure that I would be returned as the prime minister to the government of the day. I understood this to be financial assistance. Further, I understood at this meeting that I would have to open private personal accounts," Najib said during his first day on the stand.

He added that he received letters confirming the donations, "through his (King Abdullah’s) royal representatives", and these were extended to Najib’s bank, AmBank, and the central bank.

'I opened account under my personal name as suggested by Azlin'

Najib added that this, along with suggestions from his principal private secretary, the late Datuk Azlin Alias, resulted in him opening a bank account under his personal name to receive the funds.

Azlin died in a helicopter crash in 2015.

Najib testified that fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho (Jho Low) had later informed him that King Abdullah would be donating about US$1 billion.

He added that he had "never set foot" in AmIslamic Bank Bhd at Jalan Raja Chulan, which housed all his accounts involving the alleged misappropriated funds, a claim which the defence team had expressed during submissions at the end of the prosecution's case. It has to be noted that according to the charges, Najib is alledged to have committed the offences at the bank premises.

Najib also testified that Azlin had informed him that AmBank's then chief executive officer Cheah Teck Kuang would be managing the necessary, such as opening bank accounts to receive the funds and to inform Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) of the incoming monies.

Cheah, the 39th prosecution witness, had previously testified that he had reluctantly gone to Najib's house to facilitate the account opening process. Cheah also testified that he had met with former BNM governor Tan Sr Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz to inform her that Najib had opened an account with the bank and was expecting large sums of donations.

Najib also added that neither AmBank nor BNM had raised any red flags to indicate that there were any suspicious transactions. He added that the financial institutions also did not query the legitimacy of the donations or supporting documents forwarded to them.

Najib has maintained that it was his genuine belief that the monies were donations, which were spent on corporate social responsibility projects for the benefit of the public.

He had repeated this in the SRC International Sdn Bhd trial, and again in October, when he had tendered an open apology to Malaysians for his lack of oversight over the multibillion-dollar scandal.

On the stand on Monday, Najib also added that the former Saudi Minister Adel Al- Jubair also confirmed that it was a genuine donation.

However, it has to be noted that in Oct 2018, then-Malaysian Foreign Minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah said that Al-Jubair informed him that the donations had nothing to do with the kingdom’s government.

In this trial, Najib is accused of four abuses of power and 21 money-laundering charges.

Edited ByAniza Damis

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