THE past week in Najib Razak’s trial over funds involving SRC International saw a witness telling the Kuala Lumpur High Court that the former prime minister was genuinely “shocked” and “very upset” to find that RM42 million had been transferred into his personal accounts in 2015.

The money was from SRC International’s corporate social responsibility arm.

Ihsan Perdana managing director Dr Shamsul Anwar Sulaiman said that in mid-2015, after he was released from being detained and questioned for five days by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, he then went to see Najib at his private residence in Jalan Langgak Duta, Kuala Lumpur, and told him that SRC International funds had entered into the latter’s bank accounts.

When cross-examined by lead defence counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, Shamsul said Najib’s reaction appeared “genuine”, adding the former prime minister remarked that he was upset “somebody had put money into his account”.

However, when re-examined by deputy public prosecutor Muhammad Saifuddin Hashim Musaimi, Shamsul said despite the revelation, there were no instructions from Najib or anyone else to lodge a police report on the matter. 

Trial judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali also questioned former Public Services Pension Fund (KWAP) chief executive Azian Mohd Noh on a gap in her testimony over how its loan recommendation for RM1 billion to SRC International in 2011 ended up becoming RM2 billion in August 2011.

In her statement, Azian said she accompanied KWAP chairman Wan Abdul Aziz Wan Abdullah to meet Najib at his office in Putrajaya to inform him that the KWAP investment panel had decided it would only approve a loan of RM1 billion, despite a request by SRC International for RM3.95 billion. 

However, in the following statement, Azian described KWAP’s fixed income department assistant vice-president Amirul Imran Ahmat as preparing an investment paper for a RM2 billion loan to SRC International.

Azian told Nazlan that she could not remember the sequence of events that led to the loan amount being increased from RM1 billion to RM2 billion.

“I have stated earlier that at the subsequent meeting of the investment panel, Wan communicated to me, requesting me to inform the investment panel that the prime minister has communicated to him for KWAP to expedite the loan and that the amount of RM2 billion would suffice,” she said. 

Azian also told the court she met Azlin Alias, a special officer who headed Najib’s economic policy team, in June 2011 to receive an application letter for a RM3.95 billion loan.

“I was contacted by Azlin’s office to meet at a hotel lobby in KL Sentral, Kuala Lumpur. I went to the hotel at night after work,” she said. 

Azlin died in 2015 in a helicopter crash that also killed former minister Jamaluddin Jarjis, who was a close associate of Najib’s.

The letter, dated June 3, 2011, had handwritten notation of Najib’s that said, “Bersetuju dengan cadangan ini (Agree with this proposal)”.  

A second loan of RM2 billion was later approved after KWAP received a government guarantee from the Finance Ministry on March 28, 2012.