FORMER Yayasan Rakyat 1Malaysia (YR1M) CEO Ung Su Ling has denied taking orders from fugitive financier Low Taek Jho, commonly known as Jho Low, when she facilitated the transfer of millions into Najib Razak’s personal bank accounts, the High Court in Kuala Lumpur heard today.

Ung today repeatedly denied the defence’s suggestion that the term “our friend” used in phone text communications with AmBank relationship manager Joanna Yu was a reference to Low.

During cross-examination at Najib’s SRC International Sdn Bhd trial today, Ung was shown chat logs detailing about a dozen conversations on her BlackBerry Messenger with Yu that related to bank transactions in December 2014 and February 2015.

“Our friend is a generic term for people we don’t want to name,” Ung told the court when cross-examined by defence counsel Harvinderjit Singh.

The 51-year-old witness admitted that the term was occasionally used to refer to Najib’s principal private secretary Azlin Alias, from whom she took instructions. Azlin was a trustee of YR1M, as was Najib.

Ung disagreed with a suggestion that she took instructions from Jho Low for money to be moved into Ihsan Perdana Sdn Bhd on December 23, 2014.

The defence was likely referring to a RM40 million transaction from SRC International subsidiary Gandingan Mentari Sdn Bhd into Ihsan Perdana, which acted as the corporate social responsibility partner to YR1M and SRC International.

Ung was asked why she never queried to whom “our friend” referred to, to which the witness repeated that the term was used to addressed individuals either she or Yu would rather not name in phone text communications.

Yu was one of the three AmBank staff who liaised with holders of bank accounts linked to Najib and 1Malaysia Development Bhd, as well as its former subsidiary SRC International.

“I don’t know whether she would receive instructions from ‘our friend’, but these are instructions from Azlin,” she said.

“There is no reason for me to ask who ‘him’ is. I’m signing off already and the next message is Merry Christmas.”

Ung further denied Low’s or 1Malaysia Development Bhd finance director Terence Geh’s involvement in transactions of money from Ihsan Perdana to Najib’s personal bank accounts.

She also denied she was forced to rush the transactions, including a RM5 million transaction on February 10, 2015, to Najib’s account ending with “880”, saying she was just executing instructions from her superiors.

“It’s not some special sense of urgency as you are implying, but it’s just that I treat every instruction that trustees give as something to be carried out right away,” she said.

She also earlier denied that she took instructions from Jho Low to withdraw RM2 million in cash from YR1M, which she said was an instruction by trustees to fund a welfare programme for Hari Raya Haji.

“I remember this transaction because there were few transactions like this,” she said.

“I was told by Azlin to prepare a board paper for certain amount of money, for cash to be taken out.”

Harvinderjit then challenged her: “In this chat, (I put it to you that) Jho Low is telling you what to put in the board paper.”

Ung replied that Jho could say what he wanted to say but at the end of the day, she took orders from the trustees.

When told her explanation was “a recent invention”, Ung replied: “No, no, no. It is not.”

The court previously heard that transactions from Ihsan Perdana were RM27 million on December 26, 2014, to Najib’s AmIslamic bank account ending with “880”, RM10 million on December 26, 2014, to Najib’s AmIslamic bank account ending with “906” and RM5 million on February 10, 2015, to Najib’s account ending with “880”.

The private account numbers were previously identified by AmBank manager R. Uma Devi as belonging to Najib.

The charges against Najib are linked to RM4 billion in loans issued to SRC International in 2011 and 2012, for which he is accused of receiving RM42 million in his personal accounts, in 2014 and 2015.

He faces three counts of criminal breach of trust, three counts of money laundering and one count of abuse of power.

Najib, 66, is represented by a dozen lawyers led by Muhammad Shafee Abdullah.

Attorney-General Tommy Thomas is leading the prosecution, while Justice Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali is the presiding judge. – July 17, 2019.