The former prime minister told the High Court here today he became concerned when he came to know about the investigation but did not lodge a police report as he did not want to be accused of exceeding his authority.
“I could be accused of interfering with the investigation. It would have amounted to an abuse of power,” he said under re-examination by lawyer Shafee Abdullah.
He said he was aware at the time that he was the subject of the investigation.
“(The investigators) came to my office to question me,” he said when testifying in his defence in a US$1.18 billion civil lawsuit brought by SRC.
Najib was being questioned about an investigation by a special task force comprising officers from the Attorney-General’s Chambers, the MACC, Bukit Aman and Bank Negara Malaysia, which commenced in July 2015 after reports emerged that large amounts of money had been remitted from overseas into his private bank accounts.
He said he left it to the discretion of the members of the SRC board, whom he regarded as professionals, to determine whether or not to report the matter to the police.
“It would also be superfluous for me to make another report as an investigation was underway,” he said.
Najib also said he believed funds in the sum of US$1.275 billion and £50 million which entered his AmBank account between January 2011 and June 2014 had come from an Arab royal family.
Shafee: Did you believe it came from illegal means?
Najib: No.
He said he had asked former AmBank group managing director Cheah Tek Kuang to notify then BNM governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz of the remittances to enable the central bank to monitor his account to ensure the funds did not come from illegal sources.
Najib is named the first defendant in the suit, with former SRC CEO Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil as co-defendant.
SRC, now under new management, filed the suit in May 2021, accusing Najib and Nik Faisal of breach of trust, abuse of power, personally benefiting from the company’s funds and misappropriating the said funds.
Nik Faisal, who is at large, did not enter an appearance in the suit and is not defending it.
The company is seeking a court declaration holding Najib and Nik Faisal accountable for losses suffered due to their alleged breaches of duty and trust, and wants them to compensate it for the losses incurred.
The hearing before Justice Ahmad Fairuz Zainol Abidin continues.