THE prosecution’s 54th witness, former AmBank relationship manager Joanna Yu, returns to the witness stand for the last time today as Najib Razak’s SRC International trial enters its 49th day.

She will be cross-examined on the closure of Najib’s bank accounts in early 2015 and on Low Taek Jho’s actions after the 1Malaysia Development Bhd scandal broke. 

Yesterday, she told the court that Low told her that Najib didn’t want to close his accounts with AmBank after she warned the Penang-born businessman that the bank had raised red flags for money-laundering.

However, Najib’s three current accounts, ending in 880, 906, 898, were eventually closed on March 9, 2015. Najib also cancelled two credit cards the same month.

The court heard that Low was behind outflows totalling RM32 million from Najib’s bank accounts at the end of 2014 as part of an alleged effort to zero-rise transfers from Putra Perdana Construction before the end of the financial year.

Low asked Yu to prepare a letter of instruction to reverse a transfer of RM27 million from Permai Binaraya into Najib’s account ending 880, and RM5 million from Putra Perdana Construction into the account ending 906.

Yu agreed with the defence’s suggestion that the scanned letter of instruction sent by Low may contain a forged signature of Najib’s.

Yu agreed that Low was not truthful and was deceitful at times, including the time Low told her to lie about a transfer of RM27 million of SRC International funds, codenamed “Eagle 27”, into Najib’s account. 

She was told to put the purposes as a donation from royalty when, in fact, the money is from SRC International.

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

Yu has consistently maintained that she did not carry out illegal transactions under 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 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. Attorney-General Tommy Thomas leads the prosecution while Kuala Lumpur High Court judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali presides. 

The Malaysian Insight brings you today’s proceedings live: – August 6, 2019.

3.25pm: “His testimony is that his actions were like a gun was held to his head. Going by the witness statement there are issues we are going to raise. About two hours maximum. But going by the twist the witness added to the documents tendered, it will take slightly longer. I don’t think anyone of us has heard it (testimony on documents).

“We are taken by surprise. And we need just a little bit of time to prepare. We are at the closing stages of the prosecution case,” Shafee says.

Sithambaram says the final witness, an MACC investigating officer, is not ready to testify and is slated to testify earliest by tomorrow afternoon.

Shafee then argues that “speed is the biggest enemy of justice”, adding that preparation would shorten the defence’s cross-examination of the witness.

Judge Nazlan adjourns the hearing to Thursday, 9am.

Tomorrow, defence lawyers will be at the Federal Court for a hearing to recuse Gopal Sri Ram as lead prosecutor for the 1MDB case.

3.17pm: Shafee submits that Husni’s testimony has departed from the witness statement.

The lawyer describes Husni’s testimony “almost like an angry man” and said he needs to confer with Najib on the manner in which the cross-examination would be carried out.

Shafee is seeking to adjourn the trial for the day, so the defence can prepare their cross-examination.

Sithambaram: I concede that the witness testimony is slightly longer (than the statement). I submit they are not surprised based on previous documents. We are not taking them by surprise.

Shafee says the defence is not unhappy with the documents tendered but with the “twist” the witness has added to them.

3.10pm: Husni says there are no other companies under the Minister of Finance Incorporated (MoF Inc) where there are no board of directors, referring to SRC International.

He says that was the purpose of one Mohd Isa of MoF Inc, who was to be appointed onto SRC International’s board of directors.

Husni is asked to identify Najib.

“Yes I recognise him. He’s always smiling,” says Husni, to which Najib responded with a smile.

Prosecution ends examination.

3.02pm: “The culture of SRC International and 1MDB is totally different from the work culture I am used to,” Husni says, adding that there was a lack of meetings among executives before the formation of the two entities in 2009 and 2011.

Shafee objects to the prosecution’s line of questioning.

“I think this is getting completely out of line from SRC International. I don’t think the witness should go into any area that is not relevant,” said Shafee.

Judge Nazlan tells the prosecution to move on to the next question.

2.55pm: Deputy public prosecutor Muhammad Izzat Fauzan asks the witness to refer to an evidentiary document, which was a letter to Nor Mohamed bin Yakcop, a former minister in the Prime Minister’s Department in charge of the Economic Planning Unit.

Husni says the letter was to lament that he has faced difficulty obtaining information from the officers of SRC International, particularly its CEO Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil. 

Husni: They said we report to the finance minister. 

Husni says his job required that he routinely meet the Bank Negara governor, Bursa chairman and finance industry captains. “But in this case, I could not meet the SRC officers.”

They said, “We report to the finance minister.”

2.45pm: Husni mentions a letter he wrote in 2010, to which Shafee objected, saying 1MDB matters are not relevant to this case and that the defence’s prior questions relating to 1MDB were objected to by the prosecution.

Nazlan allows the questioning after an assurance by the prosecution that the questions were meant to establish some background.

Husni says he raised concerns, including on the RM2 billion loan to SRC International from Retirement Funds Inc (KWAP), which was approved in 2011.  

Husni: There are autocratic elements in SRC International, its business and its direction.

Husni said the formation of entities such as SRC International should begin with feasibility studies at the Finance Ministry.

2.35pm: Husni says his duties as finance minister II include managing and carrying out budgetary expenditure as directed by the then prime minister and finance minister, who was Najib.

Husni says he met Najib in 2009 and told him that a feasibility study needs to be carried before forming 1MDB, which would normally take ten years. 

Najib replied to him, “I know what I’m doing.”

Husni says he opposed the PetroSaudi-1MDB joint venture and he told Najib in another meeting in 2009 that 1MDB did not have the expertise. 

He says Najib told him to “Go back home. I don’t want you to interfere in 1MDB.”

2.30pm: Husni, who is retired, says he was appointed by Najib in 2009 and resigned from the post on June 27, 2016.

2.25pm: Court resumes. The next witness to take the stand is former finance minister II Ahmad Husni Mohamad Hanadzlah.

12.16pm: Sithambaram asks for an early lunch and for trial to resume at 2pm with the next witness. Court adjourns.

12.14pm: Sithambaram refers to a chat log where Jho Low refers to Najib as “OP”. Yu says OP meant Optimus Prime, as a nickname for Najib. Sithambaram ends his examination and Yu is let go from the stand.

12.10pm: Yu says Nik Faisal is not allowed to take any money out of Najib’s accounts.

12.09pm: Sithambaram continues his re-examination after a short break.

11.44am: Sithambaram: Can you 100% confirm the correctness of these cheques. Can you confirm the date and time?

Yu: I can’t say. 

Sithambaram: Do you know where the defence got these cheques? 

Yu: I’m not aware.

She says she doesn’t know when the cheques were produced or where they came from.

11.40am: Sithambaram goes through a chat between Yu and Low where she sends him birthday greetings. She says Low’s birthday is in November.

11.34am: Sithambaram: It puzzles me that you have this role in these accounts. 

Yu: I was there when these accounts were opened.

11.33am: Sithambaram: Are you aware that Nik Faisal was appointed CEO of SRC International by Najib? 

Yu: I don’t know. I’m not aware.

11.29am: Sithambaram: Is it common to prepare draft letters for clients?

Yu: We do help customers when they want money to buy stuff.

Sithambaram: I have to ask, does Nik Faisal read and write? 

Yu: Yes, yes he does.

11.28am: Sithambaram: If Jho Low did not help transfer cash into his account, would the cheques issued by Najib be cleared? 

Yu: No, some of them would have been declined. 

Sithambaram: There were some question asked of you to not bounce cheques.

Yu: There were several requests. 

Sithambaram: Who reminded you constantly that Najib’s cheques should not bounce? 

Yu: Jho Low and Nik Faisal. 

Sithambaram: What was your business for you to take Jho Low’s instruction to not bounce Najib’s cheques. Do you realise it’s a serious crime? 

Yu: He was the prime minister of Malaysia, it’s a discredit to him if his cheque bounced, it would look bad. 

Sithambaram: Was it your function to see to this? 

Yu: No, we actually could have not done anything and let it bounce.

11.24am: Sithambaram asks if Najib ever queried or complained on the conduct of the account. 

Joanna says no. She says Najib brought no suits against the bank when the accounts were closed.

11.22am: She says she had never received oral instructions from Najib on any of his accounts.

11.18am: They are now going over Najib’s use of US$130,000 in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Yu agrees that he had used his credit card for that transaction.

11.17am: She says to her knowledge “MNR” stands for Najib Razak.

11.09am: Sithambaram asks Yu why she had contacted Low when Najib had charged RM3 million to his credit cards in Italy.

She says the credit card department had alerted her that the card had been charged in 24 transactions in Italy, and she messaged Low to verify if Najib had been using the card. She said she was worried that someone else might be using his card.

Yu says she was under the impression that Najib’s card was being fraudulently used in Italy, and this is why she messaged Low to verify.

11.06am:  Sithambaram: Now I’ll come to the BlackBerry chats. In your (cross) examination, your chats showed that Najib knew that Jho Low was communicating with the bank with regards to his accounts. In one of your chats,  Jho Low tells you that “Boss says he wrote a big cheque”. 

Boss is Najib in this instance.

Yu agrees.

11.02am: Sithambaram: Now we come to Nik Faisal. Did he transfer any money out of his accounts for himself? 

Yu: No, he did not. 

Sithambaram: Did you personally utilise any of the funds in the accounts for your benefit? 

Yu: No, I did not. 

Sithambaram: Had the account holder ever queried or written to the bank, that he had RM200 million in his accounts but he spent RM395 million? 

Yu: No. 

Sithambaram: On the facts, is it possible for a person not to know that there’s RM395 million in his accounts. 

Yu: If he wrote the cheques, he should know the money is there.

10.58am: Sithambaram: Has there been any knowledge that any cheques issued by Najib were not issued by him?

Yu: No, I don’t think so. 

Sithambaram: Is there any evidence that Jho Low had utilised the money from Najib’s accounts. Was any cheque made out to Jho Low? 

Yu: No. No.

10.57am: Yu says Najib could not utilise funds without knowing there was money in the account.

10.56am: Yu says an account holder would know if there are monies coming in and going out of the account. She also agrees that Najib had written cheques and that there were auto debits into the accounts.

She also agrees with Sithambaram’s suggestion that Najib and Jho Low knew about the money.

10.54am: Sithambaram earlier said that these are accounts he prepared to walk the witness through them. Harvinderjit tells judge Nazlan that their accounts are wrong, but Sithambaram cuts him off and tells him to make a submission later.

10.50am: Sithambaram: If I ask you to total all the credits into Najib’s account and all the debits from this account. By this, I mean the three current accounts that were opened and closed in 2013 to 2015. For the “898” account the total credit was RM109 million there was debit of RM109 million also. RM205 million was debited and credited into account ending in “906”. For the “808” account there was approximately RM292 million. There was a cumulative of RM600 million in his accounts. 

Yu agrees to these accounts.

10.43am: Sithambaram says the defence had put it to her that Najib was not aware of the RM42 million in his accounts. 

Sithambaram: You remember this? 

Yu: Yes, I do.

10.42am: When asked by Sithambaram, Yu says there are no contradictions between her previous witness statements and the one used in court last week.

10.40am: Sithambaram asks if a non-disclosure agreement was signed between Yu and the bank before the case came to court.

Yu says, yes.

10.37am: Sithambaram re-examines the witness after the defence is done with her. 

Sithambaram: You recall in the cross, they asked if the bank had asked you to leave. Without going into the terms of your settlement with the bank, we are going to touch on it.

10.35am: Yu says that she can’t remember if she had received any queries from Bank Negara regarding the accounts before the raid in July 2015.

Shafee: If Bank negara has queried about the accounts, you would and should know. 

Yu: If they did, yes. Yes, I would know.

10.33am: Shafee asks her if she had been suspicious of the nature of the amount of money coming into the accounts. 

Yu: It’s a lot, and we raised it to remittance, and they said it’s all reported 

Shafee: What does it mean that they have reported? 

Yu: They (remittance) reported to Bank Negara, so, I just left it at that.

10.31am: Yu says she didn’t raise any issue on the management of the accounts with the compliance department.

10.20am: Court resumes with lead defence counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah continuing the cross-examination. Yu says if there were complaints about any accounts, it would be escalated to AmBank’s compliance department and the compliance manager would escalate it to Bank Negara.

9.52am: The defence asks for a 15-minute recess to make sure their documents are in order for the last part of the cross-examination with Yu. Sithambaram also tells the judge that he needs the time to arrange documents for his re-examination of the witness.

9.44am: Harvinderjit moves on to another area and seeks permission to admit a document from the Companies Commission of Malaysia into evidence in the trial.

9.35am: Yu says she doesn’t know if Low is dishonest but he did hide some facts from her.

9.34am: Prosecutor V. Sithambaram says Harvinderjit is badgering the witness. He calls Harvinderjit intimidating.

9.33am: Harvinderjit asks her if Low Taek Jho was dishonest in these transactions and if she is trying to cover up for Low. 

Harvinderjit: Are you trying to cover up for Jho Low? Have you been in contact with him? 

Yu: No 

Harvinderjit: Then why are you covering up for him?

Yu is asked the question because she earlier hesitated to answer a query if Low was a liar.

9.29am: Harvinderjit is going through instances where the auto debit for the cards did not go through from the “880” account because of insufficient funds.

9.27am: The standing instruction for the credit card statements was to auto debit from the “694” current account. In August 2014, the instruction was changed to auto debit from the “880” account.

9.25am: Harvinderjit asks her about two platinum credit cards under Najib Razak’s name.

9.16am: Court starts with defence counsel Harvinderjit continuing his cross-examination of former AmBank relationship manager Joanna Yu.

8.58am: Najib arrives in court in a black suit with his aides.