NIK Faisal Ariff Kamil’s continued involvement in SRC International and him being the mandate holder for Najib Razak’s account does not implicate the latter in misappropriating the company’s funds, the defence told the Court of Appeal today.

Najib Razak’s lawyer Farhan Read said the board of the company was “caught between a rock and a hard place” and Nik Faisal was important to be retained for the role of an authorised signatory of SRC International’s bank accounts after his termination from August 2014.

“On the one hand, Nik Faisal had misrepresented the board as to the filing of the 2014 SRC audited financial statements,” Farhan submitted before a three-man bench, judge Abdul Karim Abdul Jalil, Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera and Has Zanah Mehat.

“However, Nik Faisal’s continued involvement was necessary as the SRC funds were then overseas, and his involvement was necessary in order to bring those funds back.”

The lawyer added that Nik Faisal was in the capacity tasked as noted by the board minutes and as testified by 39th prosecution witness former SRC chairman Ismee Ismail and 42nd prosecution witness former SRC director Suboh Md Yassin.

During cross-examinations at the SRC trials in Kuala Lumpur High Court, the lawyer said Ismee agreed to setting a deadline to March 2015 for the board to retrieve the money.

Suboh also agreed that Nik Faisal had the means to bring back the funds and the company would have been “handicapped” without him, Farhan read in the trial’s transcript.

Earlier on 19 April, lead prosecutor V. Sithambaram said Najib had appointed Nik Faisal as SRC International CEO but had him removed after a complaint from Ismee.

Najib, however, retained Nik Faisal in a fiduciary position as an authorised signatory of SRC International’s bank accounts.

The lead prosecutor also said that Najib continued assigning his personal banking mandate to Nik Faisal for many years until the closure of his AmBank accounts.

“This scandalous retention of Nik Faisal was to carry out the appellant’s bidding, which Nik Faisal faithfully carried out by causing the transfer of RM42 million from SRC International into the appellant’s personal bank account,” Sithambaram said then.

The defence today responded that the circumstance of Nik Faisal being retained does not provide sufficient basis to infer that Najib had knowledge of his own account balances or part of the collusion to channel the SRC’s RM42 million into his account.

“Given that there exist multiple inferences of the cause of the RM42 million transactions, the said transactions have not been proven to have been the result of any action undertaken by Nik Faisal.

“Critically, the evidence also does not establish a case that Najib had caused or instructed for the transactions to have been undertaken through any person,” Farhan said.

High Court judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali last July found Najib guilty of seven charges of abuse of position, criminal breach of trust and money laundering relating to the misappropriation of RM42 million belonging to SRC International.

The former prime minister is currently out on a RM2 million bail, appealing against his conviction and jail sentence.

The hearing of the appeal continues on May 6. – April 28, 2021.