A BANKER told the Kuala Lumpur High Court today that Najib Razak had received RM60 million from Prince Faisal Turki bin Bandar Al Saud in 2011.

Ambank head of capital market desk Yap Wai Keat said he was tasked with converting US dollar (USD) funds to ringgit (RM) which was remitted in and out of Najib’s account.

He said USD9,999,977 was converted to RM30,449,929.97 on February 24, 2011 and USD9,999,970 was converted to RM30,179,909.46 on June 14, 2011.

However, it could not be verified whether Prince Faisal has any links to the Saudi royal family.

Yap said they had received documents from Prince Faisal for the amount of USD9,999,977 on February 24, 2011.

He said the information of the incoming money was relayed to him by Joanna Yu from Ambank’s Remittance Division. Yu was the bank’s relationship manager.

Yap also said that Yu had informed her client (Najib) that there was incoming funds into his account.

Yap is the 38th witness to testify in Najib’s trial.

During the prosecution’s opening statement, it claimed that the RM2.08 billion that was remitted into the former prime minister’s account originated from companies linked to fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho, or Jho Low, as he is popularly known.

However, the defence is claiming that the money is a donation from a friendly Arab nation.

Yap told the court that Yu had then instructed him to execute the conversion of money from USD to RM after she had obtained approval from the client.

He said his department did the necessary where the conversion was done in accordance to the agreed rate as per contract.

“My department then contacted the Remittance Division and informed them of the contract number and the exchange rate,” he said.

Yap said that the transactions were carried out in accordance with instructions received by Yu from the client.

On the USD9,999,970 that was remitted into Najib’s account on June 14, 2011, Yap said he carried out the same transaction as instructed by Yu.

The Pekan MP is accused of misappropriating RM2.28 billion of 1MDB funds in between 2011 and 2013, when he was prime minister.

Najib is facing 25 charges of power abuse and money laundering. – September 28, 2022.