US$61 million, £9.46 million transferred into Najib’s personal accounts, bank officer tells court
Wedani Senen says her unit made no reports to Bank Negara as other divisions were tasked with this.
A bank officer told the Kuala Lumpur High Court yesterday that Najib Razak received US$61 million and £9.46 million through overseas money transfers into two of his personal Ambank accounts from three companies allegedly linked to fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho or Jho Low.
SWIFT unit division manager at Ambank (M) Bhd, Wedani Senen, 48, said all of the transactions involved the 2112022009694 account under code name AmPrivate Banking-MR and 2112022011880 code-named AmPrivate Banking-1MY, belonging to the former prime minister, between March 2013 and December 2014.
Wedani, the 29th prosecution witness, said there was a transfer amounting to US$61 million into Najib’s account ending in 694 (AmPrivate Banking-MR) from Tanore Finance Corporation.
Tanore was previously identified as one of the entities that received illegal money from 1MDB and which allegedly had links with Jho Low’s associate, Eric Tan Kim Loong.
Wedani added that £750,000 was transferred into Najib’s AmPrivate Banking-1MY account by Blackrock Commodities (Global) Limited on June 23, 2014.
“The same account also received money from Vista Equity International Partners Ltd (Barbados) through five transactions: £5,750,000 (Oct 19, 2014); £694,343.62 and £2,216.01 (Nov 24, 2014); £995,000.00 (Dec 5, 2014) and £1.26 million (Dec 18, 2014),” the witness told the court.
Wedani said this when reading out her witness statement at Najib’s trial for the misappropriation of RM2.3 billion from 1MDB funds.
The US Department of Justice had identified Vista Equity and Blackrock Commodities as shell companies or companies that only existed on paper, also alleged to have ties with Tan.
When cross-examined by Najib’s lawyer, Wan Aizuddin Wan Mohammed, the witness said she did not make any report to Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) about the transactions into the Pekan MP’s accounts.
“Our unit does not make any reports as other divisions are tasked with managing reports to BNM.
“I am also not sure whether BNM issued any warnings and asked the bank to explain all of the transactions involving the large sum of money,” she said.
The trial before judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah continues today.
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