Ad hoc prosecutor V Sithambaram said Najib also used others like SRC International directors Suboh Md Yassin and Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil, Yayasan Rakyat 1Malaysia (YR1M) chief executive officer Ung Su Ling and Ihsan Perdana Sdn Bhd (IPSB) managing director Shamsul Anwar Sulaiman to execute his plan.
“There is no evidence to show they had received any personal benefits in this scheme. Instead, they were used as pawns by the appellant (Najib) to effect the transfer of the RM42 million from SRC into his personal bank accounts,” Sithambaram said.
Between December 2014 and February 2015, RM42 million was moved to Gandingan Mentari Sdn Bhd (GMSB), a subsidiary of SRC International. Suboh and Nik Faisal were signatories of cheques in both companies.
Ung had testified that she met Azlin in September 2014 to discuss YR1M matters as he was one of the foundation’s four trustees.
During the High Court trial, Ung said Azlin told her that an undisclosed amount of money would be transferred to IPSB “for corporate and social responsibility programmes”.
Azlin asked for her assistance to inform Shamsul to transfer the money to an account which was later revealed to be Najib’s by Jalan Raja Chulan AmBank branch manager R Uma Devi.
Sithambaram said Najib’s act caused a wrongful loss to SRC International but brought a wrongful gain to the ex-prime minister which he was not entitled to.
He said the funds were moved to Najib’s accounts by a layering process to avoid detection, and more importantly, there was no reason for the RM42 million to be moved from SRC International.
“Had the movement of the RM42 million been innocent or for commercial motivations, then there would have been no need for the accounts of GMSB and IPSB to be used.
“This use of transit accounts serve only to camouflage the origins of the money and to avoid detection of the movement of funds into the appellant’s (Najib) accounts,” he said.
Sithambaram said Najib had issued 15 personal cheques from an account totalling RM10.7 million to, among others, a political news portal, political parties and for repair works.
“It is quite spectacular that he issued cheques then when he is now pleading ignorance about the source of the funds,” he said.
Najib, who is the Pekan MP, is accused of abusing his power as the prime minister by giving government guarantees on SRC International’s RM4 billion loan from Retirement Fund Inc.
He was also charged with three counts of criminal breach of trust and three money laundering charges in relation to RM42 million belonging to SRC International, a former unit of 1MDB.
In July last year, High Court Judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali sentenced him to 12 years’ jail and fined him RM210 million after finding him guilty of seven corruption charges in relation to the RM42 million belonging to SRC International.
The hearing continues.