SRC business plan a sham, prosecution tells court in Najib’s appeal

The Court of Appeal was today told that the SRC International business plan was a sham, although billions had been channelled to the company by the Retirement Fund Incorporated (KWAP).

Ad hoc prosecutor V Sithambaram submitted that SRC International only “commenced business” by transferring out money to Switzerland in a fixed deposit when KWAP disbursed the loan in 2011 and 2012.

He submitted this before a three-member bench led by Court of Appeal judge Abdul Karim Abdul Jalil in the hearing of former prime minister Najib Razak’s appeal against his conviction and jail sentence for the misappropriation of RM42 million in SRC International funds.

The other two judges on the bench were Has Zanah Mehat and Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera.

Sithambaram said SRC International had plans to do “all kinds of things everywhere”, from Indonesia to Mongolia.

“But there is nothing to show for it. All that talk about investment plans was a sham defence… Their defence cannot stand up to scrutiny,” he said.

At this point, one of Najib’s lawyers, Harvinderjit Singh, stood to object but Sithambaram told him to sit down.

He said Najib knew that everything was a sham as SRC International had nothing to show after obtaining the RM4 billion loan.

When asked by Karim whether this was to camouflage the actual intentions, Sithambaram said: “Yes.”

“The evidence is all there. If they had done what they said they wanted to do for Malaysia, I would have been very proud. At the very least there wouldn’t have been any more power failures. But from 2014 to 2018 nothing happened,” he said.

The Kuala Lumpur High Court on July 28 last year sentenced Najib to 12 years’ jail and fined him RM210 million after finding him guilty on seven charges of criminal breach of trust, money laundering and abuse of position involving RM42 million in SRC International funds.

The hearing of the appeal continues.