Ibrahim said the cheque was issued by Jendela Pinggiran Sdn Bhd (JPSB), an SRC International subsidiary.

He said he thought at the time the money was a contribution from the then prime minister towards reimbursement for constituency work expenses and settlement of his debts.

Ibrahim won the parliamentary seat as a PAS candidate in the 2008 general election but became Barisan Nasional-friendly after Najib came to power.

He was testifying as the fourth witness in a suit brought by plaintiffs SRC International, JPSB, and Gandingan Mentari Sdn Bhd against Umno.

The companies are seeking to recover RM16 million wrongly paid to the party’s headquarters and RM3.5 million to its Selangor chapter purportedly towards corporate social responsibility activities between April and June 2015.

In his witness statement, Ibrahim said he did not know at the time the cheque belonged to JPSB. He said his name and the cheque’s value were written by Najib.

“I did not question him about the source of the funds as Najib was the prime minister and Umno president. I thought the money was from Umno or Najib,” he said.

Najib was the prime minister and Umno president from 2009 until 2018, when his BN government was ousted from Putrajaya.

“I only knew in May 2021 that the funds originated from SRC, after reading an article in The Edge.

“When I met Najib at the Prime Minister’s Office in Putrajaya on May 4, 2015, I did not know the RM600,000 cheque given to me belonged to JPSB,” Ibrahim said.

He said he went to see Najib two days after his election defeat in 2013 since he had spent his own money as an independent candidate and later to contest in the polls.

“I poured out my feelings to him. He took a cheque book from his drawer and wrote the cheque,” he said.

Ibrahim said he later realised that Najib had no authority to issue cheques belonging to JPSB.

“In hindsight, it was a dishonest act by Najib,” he said.

Earlier this week, former SRC International director Suboh Yassin testified that he had signed four blank cheques which formed the RM19.5 million disbursed to Umno.

Suboh, who was also a director of JPSB, said the other signatory who signed blank cheques was Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil, then SRC International’s CEO and also a JPSB director.

In their opening statement, the plaintiffs said the blank cheques were handed over to Najib.

They said Umno received money from a “gargantuan slush fund” worth RM4 billion created from funds diverted, embezzled, and abused from SRC International’s subsidiaries.

Of the RM4 billion received, which originated from Retirement Fund Incorporated, RM3.6 billion was transferred between 2011 and 2012 to a subsidiary of SRC International incorporated in the British Virgin Islands for investments in the energy and resources sector.

The remaining RM400 million was retained by SRC International in Malaysia for working capital requirements, from which RM43.96 million was sent to Gandingan Mentari and then to JPSB.

Cross-examined by lawyer Shahrul Fazli Kamarulzaman, appearing for the Umno headquarters, Ibrahim said he was unsure whether his evidence was helpful to the plaintiffs’ case.

Umno is taking the stand that the money received from JPSB was a political donation and could be used for its corporate social responsibility activities.

Shahrul: Your evidence has not shaken our case.

Ibrahim: I’m not the judge to decide on that.

The witness said he now felt cheated by Najib and would have rejected the contribution if he had known it was laundered money.

“However, I have spent all the money and am in no position to return it,” he said when cross-examined by counsel Hasnal Rezua Merican, representing Selangor Umno.

Ibrahim also insisted that he has remained morally clean as a politician over the last 40 years.

“That is why I was not investigated and charged with any offence,” he said, as those present in court burst into laughter.

At the close of the testimony, Justice Raja Ahmad Mohzanuddin Shah Raja Mohzan wished Ibrahim, who turns 74 tomorrow, a healthy and happy life.

Lawyer Razlan Hadri Zulkifli then informed the judge that the plaintiffs were closing their case.

The hearing was adjourned to April 7.