IN the second week of Najib Razak’s SRC International trial, a prosecution witness testified that Najib Razak had signed a letter approving a RM3.95 billion loan that SRC International requested from the Retirement Fund Incorporated (KWAP).

Amirul Imran Ahmat, who was assistant vice-president at KWAP’s fixed income department at the time, told the Kuala Lumpur High Court that the letter was dated June 3, 2011.

Amirul testified that KWAP later received instructions from SRC International that the money be wired into SRC International’s company account as it already had government backing via 1Malaysia Development Bhd.

He said KWAP also received a letter from the Finance Ministry on the government guarantee for RM2 billion for 10 years.

KWAP later transferred RM2 billion into SRC International’s company account via four tranches of RM500 million each on August 29, 2011.

KWAP made another single transfer of RM2 billion to another SRC International company account on March 28, 2012.

Of the RM4 billion funnelled into SRC International, RM42 million eventually made its way into Najib’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.  

A former Economic Planning Unit (EPU) senior officer also told the court last week that 1MDB had requested for a RM3 billion grant to start SRC International in 2010, but only RM20 million was approved.

SRC International had proposed to use the RM3 billion to venture into acquiring strategic stakes in key resource areas, such as coal, iron, oil and gas as well as uranium to fuel power plants.

A former deputy director-general at the EPU, Kamariah Noruddin, said the RM20 million was approved for ventures into coal and uranium exploration.

She said the request from 1MDB CEO Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi and addressed to Najib was awkward as it came from a company instead of a ministry, and that the EPU only dealt with ministerial requests.

During cross-examination, lead defence counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah pressed Kamariah to agree with him that RM3 billion proposal was not a “harebrained scheme”, but a serious proposal.

Kamariah later told the court the RM3 billion request was made in a three-page letter and that EPU would be negligent to approve it as the amount represented 7% of the country’s development budget of RM42 billion

Prosecutors also revealed that Najib earned a pre-tax monthly salary of RM78,451.64 from 2015 until last year, as an MP and prime minister.

Zarina Yusuf, deputy chief accountant at the Prime Minister’s Department, also revealed that Putrajaya honoured a RM1 million special payment to Najib, as outgoing prime minister, in May, 2018.

AmBank manager R. Uma Devi, who was called to testify four times, also confirmed on Monday that Najib’s personal account received RM2.6 billion between 2011 and 2013.

Defence lawyers maintained that part of the money were donations from a Prince Faisal bin Turki of Saudi Arabia and Blackstone Asia Real Estate Partners.  

The trial continues on Monday. – May 5, 2019.