THE bank account of Gandingan Mentari, a subsidiary of SRC International, was categorised as “high risk” by AmBank due to the high volume of cash flow, a bank manager told the Kuala Lumpur High Court today.

AmBank manager R. Uma Devi said that particular account was monitored by the bank’s compliance department.

“The department carried out monthly checks on the account after being tagged as high risk,” Uma said under cross-examination by Najib Razak’s defence lawyer, Harvinderjit Singh. 

Uma said the account was categorised as high-risk becasue it “handled a lot of cash”.

High-risk accounts are regarded by banks to be financially unpredictable or pose a certain degree of potential loss.

Uma testified last week that RM50 million flowed through Gandingan Mentari from SRC International, of which RM30 million eventually made its way into one of Najib’s AmBank accounts. 

A total of RM4 billion was funnelled into SRC International between 2011 and 2012, after which RM42 million eventually made its way into Najib Razak’s bank accounts. 

Najib faces three counts of criminal breach of trust, three counts of money-laundering and one count of abuse of power over those funds. 

Last week, Uma testified that Najib also authorised former SRC International director and CEO Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil and former SRC International director Suboh Md Yasin to handle his accounts.

Earlier this morning, Harvinderjit asked why a cheque by Suboh, issued from an SRC International account had a different looking signature from that of a form to open a second company account.  

“It’s just a slight difference,” Uma said. 

Uma said she is aware that Joanna Yu, Krystal Yap and Daniel Lee are relationship managers for both the SRC International and 1MDB accounts.

She said only they could call for money to be taken out of the accounts and that mere shareholders of both companies cannot remove money from the accounts. 

She said a relationship manager could not have compelled the bank’s cheque processing centre to clear a cheque with an unauthorised signature.

Najib, seated in the dock, appeared calm. 

He is represented by a dozen lawyers led by his lead counsel Shafee Abdullah.

Attorney-General Tommy Thomas appeared for the morning session of the hearing. 

Justice Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali is presiding over the trial. – April 29, 2019.