AMBANK manager R. Uma Devi is back on the stand again today on the 11th day of Najib Razak’s SRC International trial.

Uma told the court yesterday that the former prime minister opened a current account at AmBank on January 13, 2011 and in the following two years, US$681 million (RM2.6 billion) was credited into the account through three transactions.

Bank Negara was alerted under the ringgit operations monitoring system in February of 2011 that “large amounts” of funds would be transferred into that account, Uma testified. 

Under cross-examination, Uma confirmed that RM304 million was deposited into the account in 2011, RM756 million in 2012 and RM1.9 billion in 2013.  

The transfers included a “donation and gift” from a Prince Faisal bin Turki of Saudi Arabia. She added that US$620 million was subsequently remitted out of the country on August 23, 2014 via another account.

The account ending with “694” was closed on August 30, 2013, and the balance of RM162 million was transferred into Najib’s new account ending with “880”.

Yesterday, Uma told the Kuala Lumpur High Court that the bank account of Gandingan Mentari, a subsidiary of SRC International, was categorised as “high risk” by AmBank due to the high volume of cash flow. That account was also monitored by the bank’s compliance department.

Uma testified last week that RM50 million flowed through Gandingan Mentari from SRC International, of which RM30 million eventually made its way into one of Najib’s AmBank accounts. 

A total of RM4 billion was funnelled into SRC International between 2011 and 2012. Some RM42 million allegedly made its way into Najib’s accounts. 

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

Kuala Lumpur High Court judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali is presiding over the trial.  

The Malaysian Insight brings you today’s proceedings live:

5.20pm: Court is adjourned for the day.

4.22pm: Court resumes with Wedani verifying money transfers from Gandingan Mentari to Ihsan Perdana and other documents related to SRC.

4.02pm: Court takes a recess of 10 minutes.

3.26pm: Witness Wedani confirms that SRC received RM4 billion from Kumpulan Wang Persaraan (KWAP) in two Rentas transactions –  one in 2011 and the other in 2012.

She continues verifying more Rentas transactions made to and from Ambank accounts.

2.30pm: Wedani Senen, 45, remittance department manager at AmBank head office, takes the stand.

Wedani says the remittance department is divided into Rentas and SWIFT.

She says Rentas is a BNM system for local bank to bank transfers. The minimum Rentas transaction is RM10,000. SWIFT is for incoming and outgoing overseas transactions. 

She is questioned by DPP Sulaiman Koh on RENTAS system.

She explains the intricacies of both systems.

She says she was instructed on July 14, 2014 to transfer RM105 million from SRC to Putra Perdana, and that she verified the transaction was completed on the advice slip dated the same day.

12.55pm: Court stands down and will resume at 2.30pm.

12.53pm: Shafee ends his cross-examination and the DPP lets the witness go.

12.50pm: Habibul refutes Ashraf’s testimony that the money was for a defence contract. He said he was not involved in a defence contract at all.

Habibul says he spends his money first on these operations and claims it back later.

12.46pm: Shafee asks Habibul to give an explanation of political intel.

Habibul: In politics, you need a network to give you intel from time to time. Nobody gives you information for free. You need to be good with the division heads of parties, so that they will help when you want to implement political strategy.

Shafee: Can you tell us some political defence operations you’ve done?

Habibul: No, I would not like to. It’s not black ops – it’s more like special ops. This was done to diffuse political threats.

Shafee: Do you do forecasting?

Habibul: I don’t do that.

12.44pm: Habibul says he provided analyses and advice to Najib.

Shafee: Did you ask where the source of the money was when you received the cheque?

Habibul: No. I believed it was from political donations. I didn’t ask because it’s a common fact since I joined Umno in 1984 that many people want to give political donations to the prime minister.

12.42pm: Shafee begins his cross-examination.

Shafee: You became known as a political analyst.

Habibul: I don’t think. But that’s what people think about me.

12.40pm: Habibul informs Najib to issue the cheque under the Zulqarnain & Co law firm name.

Habibul: I asked the lawyer Ashraf to issue cheques to my wife and children because that it the reimbursement for the money I used on my own previously. The rest of the money was used for political intel and political goodwill.

12.37pm: The list of recipients is with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission.

Habibul: It’s for the purpose of BN political benefits.

This was after he became prime minister, says Habibul, adding that he received he cheque personally from Najib.

12.36pm: The cheque was made out to Zulqarnain & Co.

Habibul: I purposely requested for that because it will be deemed my own use. This money was used for political intel and political goodwill.

12.34pm: Habibul said he received a cheque for RM2.5 million on February 2, 2015.

12.33pm: Habibul’s company is called HKS Primatrix Sdn Bhd.

He says he had appointed lawyer Ashraf Abdul Razak, who was formerly a partner in Zulqarnain & Co, for personal matters.

12.31pm: Habibul Rahman Kadir Shah takes the stand.

He is questioned on a RM2.5 million cheque from Najib.

Muhammad Saifuddin Hashim Musaimi begins his examination.

12.30pm: Najib was generous and gave Lew’s company the RM1 million.

“I think he was satisfied with my work. He told me to continue.”

Shafee ends the cross-examination and the witness is let go from the stand.

12.27pm: The programmes stopped after GE14.

“This was all welfare work for the poor. Nothing goes back into our pockets.”

Shafee: So this is a welfare work? Nothing goes into people’s pocket?

Lew: No.

12.25pm: Lew says he gave them 1Malaysia T-shirts and told them that everyone is equal under the policy.

Shafee: Was this effective?

Lew: On the ground it looked positive, when they took our goodies, they changed their sentiment after some time. We need to repeatedly give them goodies.

12.23pm: Lew says he is a strong believer in 1Malaysia.

Serving such an honourable prime minister was my dream, he tells Shafee when asked why he decided to volunteer.

He says the purpose of this was to build a better relationship with blue-collared workers, who don’t understand government policies.

Lew says he reached out to them to explain and help them.

12.20pm: He says they did ground reports on the sentiments of the Chinese and the Indians and he sent the personally to Najib.

Shafee now begins his cross-examination.

Shafee: This was a voluntarily service but you used Solar Science?

Lew: Yes.

12.19pm: The money was used to pay suppliers who bought rice and other materials for the poor.

12.16pm: Lew says he received a cheque from Najib in 2015 for RM1 million paid to Solar Science Sdn Bhd.

The cheque was dated February 17, 2015 for RM1 million and signed by Najib.

12.13pm: Lew met Najib in 2009 with Tan Sri William Cheng, a billionaire who owns Lion Corp at the 5th floor of the Prime Minister’s Department.

It was a casual meeting about how to solve Chinese-related problems.

He met with Najib a few months later to volunteer to assist in the ground campaign for promoting the 1Malaysia policy.

“I am a very firm believer of this policy. This is a dream policy for all Malaysian, everybody was equal,” he says.

He met Najib alone this time in the PM’s office. He said it was a short meeting and he was reporting on ground sentiments.

12.10pm: Lew says he distributes food items to Indians in residential areas.

Since 2010, the company has been organising lunches and dinners among Chinese folk in rural areas. He said funding came from friends in the early stages.

The company was not involved with BN but coordinated with them, Lew said.

He met Najib in 2015 as the latter had given him funds to continue his programmes for the Indians and Chinese.

12.08pm: Next witness Lew Choon Lai takes the stand. He is the owner of Solar Science Sdn Bhd, formed in 2010, as an event organising firm.

12.05pm: She’s from Affin Bank and was asked to come back with a cheque image which shows that Ihsan Perdana debited RM8 million to another company called Mail Ventures Sdn Bhd.

Harvinderjit said he has no further questions for the witness and Rosiah is let go from the stand.

The prosecution also has nothing to re-examine.

12.03pm: The 20th witness, Rosiah Mohd Rosli, takes the stand.

12.02pm: Sithambaram asks if Nik Faisal can take any money from Najib’s account, to which Uma said “No”.

After three hours, Uma stands down.

Sithambaram ends his questioning and asks that the 21st witness be discharged.

11.50am: Sithambaram asks if Najib sue the bank for RM32 million for a breach of mandate and wrong signature?

Uma: Not to my knowledge.

Sithambaram: Do you agree that all the cheques issued under the three accounts (ending in 906, 880 and 898) can only be signed by DSN (Najib) and no one else?

Uma: Yes.

11.39am: Sithambaram also goes through the transactions and asking Uma to verify them.

Sithambaram: As a banker considering SRC is a government company, do you find it strange that the customer has not sued the bank for breach of mandate after five years?

To put it squarely, are you aware of legal action taken against the bank for this total sum of RM85 million?

Uma: Not to my knowledge.

11.33am: Prosecutor V. Sithambaram tells Uma that he wants to give some background.

Sithambaram: You were shown various documents from various accounts, which show that the bank didn’t take proper steps to ensure that fraud didn’t take place, you recall that?

Uma: Yes.

Sithambaram: The letter from SRC to AmIslamic bank dated December 24, 2014, there’s an instruction to debit RM40 million from Gandingan Menteri?

Uma: Correct.

11.13am: Shafee ends his cross-examination. Court breaks for 10 minutes.

11.04am: Shafee asks Uma if she has been “baptised by fire” as she took over the AmBank Raja Chulan branch less than a week before Bank Negara raided the branch on July 6, 2015.

Shafee: That means you were baptised with fire when you joined as a bank manager?

Uma: Yes.

11am: Shafee tells Uma that she was questioned earlier about transactions from Saudi Arabia, from Prince Faisal and the Finance Ministry of Saudi.

Shafee: You agree with me that the source of the money will raise an inquiry within the bank to find out if sources are valid?

Uma: Any transfer of RM50,000 can be enquired.

Shafee: There was no reason to suspect any transfer (in the account)?

Uma: No reason.

10.52am: Shafee says the officer should not have accepted the documents and should have alerted the compliance.

Shafee: If a bank officer was not bringing a report to the compliance department, can this go undetected?

Uma: Yes.

Shafee: If the officer does not tell the compliance department, does that mean there is a loophole if the officer sees a dubious transaction and doesn’t report it?

Uma: Yes.

10.50am: Shafee points to differences in the signature between the soft copy and hard copy.

“There have been differences, without even comparing. You also have agreed the signatures are different. Who ensures compliance?” he asks Uma.

Uma: Anybody who does the transaction, if they find it’s suspicious, the can write a report to the compliance department and they will investigate.

10.47am: Sometimes people request for a mandate of an account to handle their account, Uma tells the court after Shafee’s questioning.

But there must be some justification to the bank by the account holder for the mandate to be appointed, she said.

Shafee: Would you appoint someone who you don’t trust?

Uma: No.

Shafee: Do you have a fraud monitoring dept?

Uma: We have group compliance. Under this department we have monitoring.

10.42am: Shafee says he has several questions pertaining to banking principles.

The account holder is responsible and liable for any transaction in the account, he said.

10.40am: Harvinderjit concludes his cross-examination of Uma. Lead counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah begins his cross-examination of the witness.

10.10am: Attorney-General Tommy Thomas smirks at Harvinderjit’s line of questioning.

10.04am: Harvinderjit shows that the account had gone into overdraft on many occasions but always replenished with cash transfers.

Uma is verifying these transactions that occurred in late 2014.

For instance, on December 16, 2014, it was overdrawn again and RM700,000 put in to regularise the account.

10am: RM5 million was transferred into the AmBank account from an Affin Bank account. Harvinderjit said this was brought in to cover the overdraft in the account. Uma agrees.

9.49am: As of June 9, 2014, there was an overdraft of RM1.4 million in the account. There are several cash deposits which Harvinderjit is verifying.

There were also several cheque deposits to regularise the account ending with “906”.

9.45am: Harvinderjit now scrutinising an account ending with “906”.

This was opened on July 31, 2013. There are some emails related to the account from Joanna Yu, which Uma verifies.

He asks her to verify the signature of Najib Razak on a confirmation letter dated March 3 but only confirmed on March 9.

Harvinderjit: Do you notice the absence of a pronounced loop on his signature?

Uma: No there is none.

9.34am: Harvinderjit is scrutinising each transaction in Najib’s accounts.

9.22am: Uma continues her testimony and Harvinderjit Singh begins cross-examination.

9.10am: Najib arrives in court. – April 30, 2019.