He said he believed the purported donation had come from the late Saudi ruler, King Abdullah, via Tanore Finance Corporation.

Najib said he was told that Tanore was controlled by King Abdullah, and that he received a letter confirming the “donation” would be paid through the firm.

“I always treated the funds received as political donations pledged by King Abdullah, and that was how I spent them: on political causes and charities,” he said.

The former prime minister claimed that another ruler, King Juan Carlos of Spain, had received a US$100 million donation from King Abdullah a few years earlier.

Najib said he had no doubt that Tanore was controlled by King Abdullah, adding that several Arab nations had investments in the UK and the British Overseas Territories.

He also said he had not been alerted to any suspicious transactions in his account either by AmBank or Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM).

“The system in place at BNM was meant to alert me of any suspicious facts, which they either did not or could not detect,” said Najib.

The former prime minister said he opened local bank accounts to receive the promised donation for the sake of transparency.

“If I wanted to pillage 1MDB’s money, I could have easily opened up offshore accounts like Jasmine Loo or Amhari (Efendi Nazaruddin),” said Najib, referring to 1MDB’s former legal counsel Loo, and Amhari, his former special officer.

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

The hearing continues before Justice Collin Lawrence Sequerah.