In addition, money was also transferred to PSI director Patrick Mahoney’s bank account and to a law firm in London.

Former 1MDB chief executive officer Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi, who was shown bank documents by Najib’s lawyer, Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, confirmed that Good Star had received US$700 million – recorded as “payment from 1MDB” – on Sept 30, 2009.

He said that on Oct 5, 2009, Good Star sent a sum of US$85 million to Tarek’s bank account. It was recorded as “commission received by client for joint venture deal” by the bank.

From Tarek’s bank account, Shahrol said, US$33 million was transferred to Mahoney’s bank account, and another £127,015.49 to White and Case, the London law firm overseeing the joint venture company between 1MDB and PSI.

Shafee asked Shahrol whether the US$85 million “commission” for Tarek was given in good faith or an “outright theft”.

Shahrol said he could not determine the authenticity of the “commission”, adding that Tarek, who also served as a director in the joint venture company, did not declare that he received the money from the joint venture.

He also said both Mahoney and Tarek had stopped him from checking the joint venture company’s bank account with JP Morgan.

“Tarek wrote a letter to us, saying that the US$700 million was confirmed as payment to Petro Saudi International for 1MDB’s joint venture.

“At that time, we did not suspect the money went to Jho Low’s company,” he said, referring to Good Star.

Shahrol denied a suggestion by Shafee that he was part of a conspiracy to divert 1MDB funds to Low’s company.

Najib is standing trial on 25 counts of money laundering and abuse of power charges over alleged 1MDB funds amounting to RM2.28 billion deposited in his AmBank accounts between February 2011 and December 2014.

The hearing before High Court judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah continues tomorrow.