NAJIB Razak’s SRC International trial enters its 46th day today, with the prosecution’s 54th witness, former AmBank relationship manager Joanna Yu, returning to the stand.

She is expected to be cross-examined by the defence on her relationship with fugitive financier Low Taek Jho. Last week, defence lawyers sought to establish Low’s influence behind many of the transactions related to Najib’s bank accounts.

The former prime minister’s lawyers are expected to question her on Low’s reaction in mid-2015 when the authorities here began their crackdown after The Wall Street Journal began running a series of articles on how 1Malaysia Development Bhd and its former subsidiary, SRC International, were being pilfered.

Defence lawyers have suggested that Low manipulated Najib’s accounts, along with the help of others, to defraud SRC International.

On Monday, Yu reiterated that Low was the go-to person whenever she could not get hold of former SRC International Sdn Bhd CEO Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil whenever Najib’s current accounts were overdrawn.

Yu, however, maintained that only Nik Faisal could sign off on bank written instructions because he was the accounts’ mandate holder.

Yu also agreed with the defence’s suggestion that Najib may have been under the impression that the RM42 million deposited into his accounts in December 2014 and February 2015 – for which he is facing criminal charges – were donations.

Lawyers suggested that Najib’s state of mind then may have stemmed from the previous transactions amounting to hundreds of millions into other accounts.

Presiding judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali also overruled an objection by prosecutors that the transactions were irrelevant. Prosecutors argued that the transactions were part of the 25 1MDB-related charges that Najib will face in another trial.

The transactions included RM100 million received in four tranches in 2011 and US$681 million received from Tanore Finance Corp in 2013. Both times, the amounts were disbursed to a current account belonging to Najib that was closed in 2013.

Yu verified that US$681 million was deposited into Najib’s account in 2013 from Tanore Finance Corp, a firm that will be a central focus in Najib’s upcoming 1MDB trial. She also agreed that US$620 million, being underutilised, were allegedly returned.

AmBank manager R. Uma Devi told the court in April that a total of RM1.9 billion was credited into Najib’s account ending with the numbers “694” from 2011 to 2013.

Portions of the money were purportedly donations from a Prince Faisal al Turki as well as the Saudi Arabia Finance Ministry. Uma testified that Bank Negara was informed of the purposes of the transactions.

Yu, who will be on the witness stand for her sixth day today, has consistently maintained that she did not carry out illegal transactions under Low or Nik Faisal’s instructions or help Low defraud SRC International of millions of ringgit.

Najib’s charges 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.

The 66-year-old was charged with three counts of criminal breach of trust, three counts of money-laundering and one count of abuse of power.

The former prime minister is represented by a dozen lawyers led by Muhammad Shafee Abdullah while Attorney-General Tommy Thomas leads the prosecution.

The Malaysian Insight brings you today’s proceedings live:

5.19pm: Cross-examination is done for the day. Court is adjourned until 9am tomorrow.

4.48pm: Harvinderjit asks Yu if she is aware that dealing with a third party who is not a mandate-holder is a criminal offence. She says she is aware of this. 

This follows her previous statement that Nik Faisal is officially the mandate-holder. 

Harvinderjit asks her whether a provision existed to allow for an oral mandate-holder, such as Low. 

She says no.

4.44pm: Yu says she would tell Low not to issue cheques when accounts are overdrawn, but Low would tell her that he has no control over the accounts and cheques being written.

4.43pm: Harvinderjit: Do you still maintain that Nik Faisal independently gave you instructions? 

Yu: I don’t know. 

Harvinderjit: Jho Low tells you to tell Nik what to say.

Yu: But I don’t tell Nik what to say.

4.10pm: Harvinderjit asks Yu if she agrees with the description that Nik Faisal was tacit and followed instructions from Low. She says that they had to email Low concerning every transaction.

2.42pm: Harvinderjit suggests that Yu had become “less cooperative” with Nik Faisal and Low in January 2015 because her constant warnings of possible Anti-Money Laundering Act 2001 (AMLA) offences had fallen on deaf ears.

She agrees.

2.36pm: They begin going through cash deposits into the AmBank account that ends in the numbers “880”.

1.04pm: Yu also advised Low not to issue any more cheques but they still came from Najib.

1pm: Harvinderjit suggests that since they tried to keep the accounts from being overdrawn, someone should’ve told Najib to stop issuing cheques if they were overdrawn.

Harvinderjit also suggests that if a person knew the balance of the accounts, then cheques would be issued within the balance amount.

He implies that Najib was not told of the balance in the accounts. Yu said he should have asked someone about the balance.

12.50pm: Yu defends herself by saying that she had to make sure that the cheques written out did not bounce as it was the prime minister’s cheques.

Harvinderjit rebuts by telling her that Low had never once told her that it was the prime minister’s accounts. He tells her to stick to the chat logs and not stray from them.

12.30pm: Harvinderjit asks Yu if she had funded RM55,000 of her own money because the “906” account was overdrawn and she could not get in touch with anyone, such as either Low or his secretary Josie. She says it was possible. 

Harvinderjit asks her if this was in violation to standard operating procedures, Yu relunctantly agrees.

11.35am: Court is back in session. Nazlan allows the defence’s request to carry on through lunch for today and adjourn at 3pm as the defence has another matter at another court.

Defence counsel Harvinderjit continues his cross examination.

He says the next line of questioning is to indicate that Low was controlling Putra Perdana Bhd as well.

Yu says it was Low calling the shots for Putra Perdana.

11.04am: Yu tells Lee to rush as “Boss” needs to honour the issued RM3.8 million cheque.

“Boss” refers to Low and Lee says he’s chasing it.

At 4.50pm that day, Lee manages to transfer RM5million into Putra Perdana’s Alliance bank account.

Court takes a 10-minute break.

11am: Lee then tells her that he’s looking for the funds when she reaches out to him.

He is under the impression that they needed RM4 million in the account and tells her that he got RM3 million and is looking for another RM1 million.

Yu tells him they actually need RM5 million. Jerome replies: “Aiyo”.

10.54am: Low tells Yu to instruct Jerome Lee, a director from SRC International, not to transfer RM5 million from Putra Perdana but to do it via its Maybank accounts.

Low also instructs that Najib’s name should not appear in the transaction.

10.51am: On September 10, 2014, there was a credit of RM5 million into the “906” account from Putra Perdana construction. Before that transaction, the account was overdrawn by RM4 million.

Yu sends a message to Jho Low’s secretary, Josie and asks if she can spare RM3.8 million.

Josie said “no” and that’s a huge amount. Yu tells Josie that Jho Low is not contactable.

Yu texts Low many times that morning.

She tells him the account is overdrawn by RM4.7 million and there’s not enough money in all three current accounts. She tells him RM3.8 million is needed because there was a RM5 million cheque written out to Umno.

Yu informs him the money must be in by afternoon or the cheque will bounce. Low responds that afternoon, telling her he’s on a plane and asks her what account he should wire the funds to.

He tells her Putra Perdana will issue the sum.

Low says “Datuk will reply” and Harvinderjit suggests that “Datuk” refers to Rosmah Mansor.

10.40am: Zahid leaves the courtroom.

10.38am: Harvinderjit suggests that RM27 million from Permai Bina Raya is a donation and that Jho Low gave the instructions to transfer that sum into the “880” account.

Yu agrees with that based on the chat logs and Rentas transactions.

10.33am: The Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court has allowed Zahid’s application to transfer his case involving seven criminal charges, related to a foreign visa system, to the Shah Alam Sessions Court.

10.29am: Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi enters the public gallery.

He sits behind Najib and they exchange a few words.

Zahid is in the Kuala Lumpur court complex this morning for a hearing.

9.43am: They’re going through chat logs of her conversations with Jho Low regarding Najib’s current accounts at AmBank.

9.22am: Proceedings begin with Harvinderjit Singh continuing day five of his cross-examination of witness Joanna Yu. – July 31, 2019.