THE relationship between former AmBank relationship manager Joanna Yu and fugitive financier Low Taek Jhow was the central focus of Najib Razak’s SRC International trial this week.

Low was one of the bank’s biggest clients, Yu told the Kuala Lumpur High Court, adding that he was also the go-to person whenever Najib’s current accounts were overdrawn.

Yu, the prosecution’s 54th witness, testified that it was the Penang-born businessman’s idea for the bank to use a code name to conceal Najib’s identity.

The code name – “AmPrivate Banking-MR” – was what senders saw instead of Najib’s name when transferring funds into his private current accounts.

Yu, 48, also corroborated with the previous week’s testimony by former AmBank managing director Cheah Tek Kuang, who said that it was Low who played a role opening Najib’s savings and current accounts, as well as credit cards, in early January 2011.

Low, in fact, ushered Cheah into Najib’s home to get the application forms signed.

Go-to person

Yu also testified whenever Najib’s current accounts were overdrawn, she had to contact Low when she could not get in touch with SRC International CEO Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil, whom Najib had appointed as the mandate holder to his accounts and that of SRC International.

A mandate holder is empowered to confirm written instructions but not authorised to sign cheques or make withdrawals.

Yu said Low has a track record of helping to remedy Najib’s overdrawn situation to ensure that the cheques were honoured.

On how he came to wield such influence, Yu said she didn’t know the extent of Low’s relationship with either Nik Faisal or Najib.

Aside from the two accounts opened in 2011, Najib opened three more current accounts in 2013. Those accounts recorded high volume of transactions between 2011 and 2015.

Between 2014 and 2015 alone, more than RM150 million was deposited into three accounts belonging to Najib. The accounts were constantly overdrawn, Yu testified, adding that the bank would normally dishonour cheques from overdrawn accounts.

AmBank’s Raja Chulan branch would alert Yu of the overdrawn situation, after which she would contact Nik Faisal through telephone calls, text messages or emails to ensure that the cheques are honoured. When that failed, she would then contact Low.

On why she went to great lengths to cover for Najib’s overdrawn accounts, Yu said she took the initiative as it would not be seemly for a prime minister’s cheques to bounce.

She said Najib’s current accounts were constantly overdrawn and that AmBank’s management was “uncomfortable” with the large deposits made.

‘Gifts’ from overseas

Yu also said between 2011 and 2015, Najib’s current accounts saw a high volume of transactions, including inward fund transfers from overseas in foreign currencies.

For the purposes of reporting the overseas inward fund transfers to Bank Negara Malaysia, Yu said she enquired from Nik Faisal about the purpose of the said funds and was informed that they were “gifts”.

She forwarded a request in 2014 to Low and Nik Faisal that Najib close his accounts due to a money-laundering red flag raised by then AmBank group managing director Ashok Ramamurthy.

Najib’s current accounts were closed on March 9, 2015. His credit cards were cancelled on March 11 the same year, following the payment of outstanding balance a day earlier.

Yu met Nik Faisal and Low in 2008, a year before 1Malaysia Development Bhd was formed.

She met Low when he was raising funds for Majestic Masterpiece Sdn Bhd, before he was made a special adviser to the Terengganu Investment Authority (TIA), a state wealth fund taken over by the Minister of Finance Inc in 2009 and renamed 1MDB.

Yu said she met Nik Faisal during a deal in which Saudi oil firm PetroSaudi International Ltd sought to acquire Utama Banking Group Bhd (UBG), held by Majestic Masterpiece.

When pressed by the defence, Yu denied she conspired with Low to defraud SRC International of millions of ringgit, which led to criminal charges levelled against Najib.

Yu said although she had contacted Low to expedite cash payments many times to prevent Najib’s cheques from bouncing, she said she never took instructions from Low on other transactions.

She added that she agreed with Cheah’s personal opinion of Low, that he was never on time and that bankers had to put up with the “tardiness” of their clients.

Cheah retired as group managing director in 2012 and was appointed as a non-executive director. He stepped down from the board in 2014.

Yu said after Cheah left, she was instructed to inform Low that Najib’s remaining three current accounts should be closed.

Deleting BlackBerry chat logs

In March 2015, Low asked Yu to delete chat logs of their text conversations on her BlackBerry, just months before enforcement authorities raided the bank to seize documents related to alleged misappropriation of public funds.

Yu told the court that she didn’t delete the chat logs as she said she didn’t know how to do so. Records of her conversations with Low remained on her phone, which was later seized by Bank Negara during a raid on AmBank’s Raja Chulan branch in Kuala Lumpur on July 6, 2015.

Yu also denied she had passed details of her communications with Low to WSJ journalists Tom Wright and Bradley Hope. She also said she has not read their book, Billion Dollar Whale: The Man Who Fooled Wall Street, Hollywood, and the World.

Yu said she was asked to leave AmBank in 2015, where she had worked for two decades, due to increasing pressure following Bank Negara’s raid on the bank’s Raja Chulan branch.

The situation worsened after AmBank was fined RM53.7 million in November that year for failing to report suspicious transactions related to Najib’s accounts.

Her fellow relationship managers – Daniel Lee and Krystle Yap – also left, she said, adding that she later took AmBank to court.

Yu said she sued AmBank and was going to elaborate further if not for ad hoc prosecutor V. Sithambaram, who interjected the defence’s cross-examination, saying she has signed a non-disclosure agreement and cannot speak further on the matter.

Najib’s charges are linked to RM4 billion in loans issued to SRC International, for which he is accused of receiving RM42 million in his personal accounts in 2014 and 2015.

The hearing, presided by justice Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali, continues tomorrow. – July 28, 2019.