FORMER prime minister Najib Razak testified that he would not be so “stupid” as to direct his cronies to place funds meant for a Ministry of Finance Inc (MoF Inc) entity into his own personal bank accounts, the high court heard today.

During re-examination, he denied the prosecution claims that cronies acted in his behalf to channel RM42 million into his personal bank accounts between December 2014 and February 2015.

To a question by defence counsel Farhan Read, Najib replied there was no expressed instruction for the money to be transferred into his accounts.

“No witness came forward to say I gave the instruction. There were no written instructions. No meetings took place.

“No evidence that the money was offered to me as a bribe for taking part in the decision to approve the government guarantee (for SRC International’s RM4 billion in loans).

“There is no basis to say I knew.

“I must say I have been in the government for a long time, it is ludicrous to take money from an MKD (MoF Inc) company to begin with and in some manner to put that in my personal account.

“If I had a criminal mind to cheat, I would have been the stupidest person in this country to have done this in this manner.

“You wouldn’t take money stolen from a grant to your own personal account. A lot of people would know about it. Even Bank Negara would know about it.

“I may not be the most intelligent person, but I’m not that stupid. There’s no evidence on the RM42 million that I directed it to be put into my account.”

Najib, 66, faces three charges of criminal breach of trust, one of abuse of power and three of money-laundering. He faces up to 20 years imprisonment, if convicted.

Present were lead defence counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, Attorney-General Tommy Thomas and ad hoc deputy public prosecutor V. Sithambaram, who concluded his cross-examination of Najib this morning.

Earlier, Najib testified that he was transparent when it came to dealing with Retirement Fund Inc’s (KWAP) RM4 billion in loans to SRC International.

During re-examination, he said the cabinet was adequately briefed on SRC International’s first loan of RM2 billion in 2011.

“It was the desire of the government to increase the level of transparency involving decisions with government guarantees so the cabinet was fully aware of the content liability that the government will be exposed to.

“Although the (law) doesn’t stipulate this requirement, but the government thought it would be wise to do so because it involves the entire cabinet so ministers would be free to give their views.

“I know over the years ministers who spoke freely about whether such a guarantee should be given and so forth.

“And in my mind it was a right decision, a good decision and an appropriate decision to escalate the final authority to the cabinet as oppose to judging it as the minister of finance.”

Najib said SRC International was not raised Parliament between 2011 and 2012, when the government guarantees for the two loans were approved but was brought up later when it became an issue. – February 3, 2020.