THE prosecution’s 54th witness, former AmBank relationship manager Joanna Yu, will today return to the stand as Najib Razak’s SRC International Sdn Bhd trial enters its 48th day.

Her cross-examination, which is entering the final leg, has seen defence lawyers asking about the role played by wanted financier Low Taek Jho behind transactions, involving millions, linked to former prime minister Najib’s accounts.

Today’s cross-examination may go over the closing of Najib’s accounts, as well as the cancellation of credit cards in March 2015 and Low’s reaction after Bank Negara Malaysia raided AmBank’s Raja Chulan branch on July 6 the same year.

On Friday, Yu told the court that Low attempted to discreetly move RM139 million out of SRC International in July 2014.

Referring to BlackBerry chat logs, she confirmed that he used bank drafts instead of digital transfers to hide the movement of funds from SRC International’s AmBank account to Putra Perdana Construction, which had accounts with Public Bank.

She testified that former 1Malaysia Development Bhd finance director Terence Geh facilitated the issuance of three bank drafts for the amounts of RM36 million, RM76 million and RM27 million.

The Kuala Lumpur High Court also heard that Low told her to lie about the transfer of RM27 million in SRC International funds, code-named “Eagle 27”, into Najib’s account. She said she was told to state the purpose of the transfer as a donation from royalty, when in fact, the money was from the entity.

The funds found their way into Najib’s “880” account, which is also the subject of three money-laundering charges for which he has yet to stand trial.

Yu told the court that she and other members of her team at AmBank in 2013 declined job offers from Low, who, by then, was heavily linked with 1Malaysia Development Bhd and SRC International.

She has maintained that she did not carry out illegal transactions on Low or former SRC International CEO Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil’s instructions.

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

He is represented by a dozen lawyers led by Muhammad Shafee Abdullah. Attorney-General Tommy Thomas leads the prosecution, while high court judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali presides.

The Malaysian Insight brings you today’s proceedings live:

5.02pm: Harvinderjit is also going through charges made on Najib’s MasterCard and Visa cards. Jho Low had drafted a letter to Nik Faisal to ask them for RM3 million.

4.32pm: Harvinderjit suggests that Jho Low deceived her about the transaction of the funds. She said he didn’t tell her why he needed the reversals to be carried out.

4.27pm: Harvinderjit is going through transactions made by Putra Perdana Construction where they received RM105 million.

Harvinderjit suggests that the reversal carried out was to balance the books in SRC’s audited accounts by year end.

Yu agrees with this suggestion.

3.01pm: There was another transaction of RM5 million from Permai Bina Raya, which was transferred into the “906” account. Jho Low asked for the RM27 million transaction into the “880” account and the RM5 million transaction to be reversed.

On December 24, 2014, Jho Low puts pressure on Yu to have these fund reversals completed by year end.

2.26pm: Joanna Yu taking the stand again with Harvinderjit continuing his cross examination. She tells the court that in 2011-2015 there were a few branch managers in AmBank. She can’t recall who they all were exactly.

Harvinderjit asks her if she knows that these people were also asked to leave the bank. She said she was not sure.

To recap, Harvinderjit goes through money transactions of RM170 million transferred out of SRC: RM140 million was sent to Putra Perdana’s Account from that, RM27 million was banked into Najib’s “880” account.

SRC International director Jerome Lee had asked for the RM27 million transaction to be undone and deposited back into Putra Perdana’s accounts.

2.19pm: Yu takes the seat on the witness stand. Najib, dressed in a dark grey suit, is in the public gallery. Lawyers representing both the defence and prosecution are present in court after their morning at the Court of Appeal.

9.19am: Prosecution and defence lawyers are at the Court of Appeal in Putrajaya, appealing against high court judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah’s decision to start the 1MDB trial on August 19. Both sides want the SRC International trial to conclude first.

The SRC International trial will continue at the Kuala Lumpur High Court after the appellate court hears the lawyers’ application. – August 5, 2019.