NAJIB Razak’s former special officer Amhari Efendi Nazaruddin testified today that he received US$200,000 from Low Taek Jho to buy a house in Kota Damansara, Petaling Jaya.

Then money, which came up to RM600,000, was transferred from Low’s company Alsen Chance Holdings Limited to Amhari’s Maybank account.

The prosecution witness told the Kuala Lumpur High Court that the money was used to purchase a RM1.85 million house and that he intended to pay back Low when he sold his other house, also in Kota Damansara.

Amhari was the prime minister’s special officer from 2008 to 2014, after which he joined Khazanah Nasional as a director. He left  after Barisan Nasional was routed in the May 9 polls last year.

The witness said he owned four houses in Petaling and Johor, and was about to purchase his fifth when he lost his position after the general election.

Amhari denied that he had put himself in a compromising position by accepting a loan from Low.

Lead defence counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah had asked Amhari why a loan agreement was not drawn up.

Shafee: Jho Low put you in a compromised position, didn’t he?

Amhari: Jho Low is a very influential person and is very close to Najib. Even if Najib did not know about this, Jho Low can still make amends if necessary because he has the access.

Shafee: But can agree that Jho Low has put you in a comprising situation?

Amhari: I disagree.

Shafee: Come on, the money came in, but Jho Low never took it back?

Amhari: Correct.

Shafee said an amendment to the anti-money laundering law in 2005 would require Amhari to declare the loan.

Amhari said he was advised by Low that was not necessary.

In a separate trial over SRC International funds, defence lawyers suggested that Low misled Najib by working with bankers and possibly SRC senior executives to defraud the government-linked entity of millions.

In the 1MDB case Najib is on trial for four counts of power abuse to enrich himself by RM2.3 billion and 21 counts of laundering the same amount.

 ‘Puppet master’

During cross-examination today, Amhari agreed with the defence’s suggestion that Low was a “puppet master” who always got what he wanted.

Amhari stood by his previous description of Low as a “master manipulator” who knew how to get people to do his bidding.

If there were a football match and I was sent to meet the head of the football team, when I arrived I would find that not only did was Low familiar with the head, he also knew the other team, the referee and the supporters in the stand, Amhari said.

“He would already know these people and would have already met them,” he said when cross-examined by lead defence counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah.

Amhari said he experienced the breadth of Low’s connections when he went to Abu Dhabi in 2016 to meet Mubadala Investment Co chief executive officer Khaldoon Khalifa Al Mubarak to settle a debt dispute between 1MDB and International Petroleum Investment Co.

The witness said he felt that again in China in 2016 when he met a facilitator from a government-linked company to discuss bailing out 1MDB.

Shafee: In other words, Jho is a puppet master and you and others are merely a puppet?

Amhari: I can agree with that.

Amhari also said Low had “super powers” when it came to cutting deals behind the scene.

The witness also agreed with Shafee that Low could have been the one who arranged for Najib and one Prince Turki of Saudi Arabia to meet that would lead to a donation amounting to hundreds of millions of ringgit.

The 66-year-old accused is represented by a dozen lawyers led by Shafee.

Gopal Sri Ram, a former Federal Court judge, leads the prosecution in the trial presided over by High Court judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah. –September 5, 2019.