DEUTSCHE Bank Malaysia Bhd (DBMB) was pressured to accelerate a US$1 billion remittance order to meet former prime minister Najib Razak’s deadline, a banker told the Kuala Lumpur High Court today.

Jacqueline Ho Yek Wan, the former managing director (head of global markets corporate sales) at DBMB, said Casey Tang, the former executive director of 1MDB, had told her that the remittance had to be done by 4pm on September 30, 2009.

Tang is a close associate of businessman Low Taek Jho, or Jho Low, and is currently on the Interpol red list.

“Tang requested that DBMB execute the fund transfer as soon as possible,” Ho said in her witness statement.

“Tang continued to persistently press upon DBMB again, that DBMB needed to speed up the money transfer process as the then prime minister Najib wanted to hold a press conference on the 1MDB joint venture with PetroSaudi International Ltd (PSI).”

Ho said Tang had told her that the transaction was also very important as it involved a government-to-government (G2G) venture.

Najib’s lawyer Wan Aizuddin Wan Mohamad, however, raised an objection to this particular testimony, saying that it was hearsay.

Under cross-examination by Wan Aizuddin, Ho said Tang told her about the urgency on September 30 and had even waited at the DBMB office while the remittance was being executed.

“Did this purported representation motivate you to undertake the transition as soon as possible?” Aizuddin asked.

Ho said it did not, as the transaction would have been completed on September 30, regardless.

“Yes, and no. We would have done it that day anyway. For USD transactions, we would finish by 5pm, but I asked the operations people to prioritise this transaction,” she said.

“(The remittance) would not have been delayed to the next day, for sure. There was clear instruction (from 1MDB) to send it on September 30.”

The US$1 billion was eventually remitted around 3pm that afternoon. Ho also verified that Najib had indeed made the announcement of the joint venture project.

“Around 4pm, I checked for the article online. I passed into the compliance department as part of the documentation to say that this is what the client has represented and an announcement was made.”

Identity of US$1 billion concealed

Ho, who is the prosecution’s 30th witness, said in her statement that the 1MDB board had agreed for the US$1 billion to be remitted in one transaction with the beneficiary being BSI Bank.

The transfer was also authorised by Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM), she said.

On the day the transaction was to be executed, Ho said she received a remittance instruction from 1MDB treasury executive Stephenny Chow that the US$1 billion will be remitted in two tranches, with US$700 million going to JP Morgan SA and US$300 million to an account at RBS Coutts Bank Ltd.

The remittance instruction did not have the beneficiary name, Ho said.

“Following this, I received an email from Chow informing me that the beneficiaries for the transfers were 1MDB Petrosaudi for the sum of US$300 million and Petrosaudi International Ltd for the sum of US$700 million.

“Chow, however, informed me that the name of the beneficiaries should not be included in the remittance instruction,” she said.

Ho said she informed Tang and 1MDB CEO Shahrol Halmi that the beneficiary name must be included but was told that they have been instructed to use this format where the name was left out.

“Typically you will have an account number and name. The name is meant to be a counter-check for the recipient bank in case the account number is erroneous. As a receiving bank, you will check the name and account number so they match and you don’t deposit into the wrong account.

“I told Shahrol and Casey if their remittance does not have a name, the bank will reject the transfer. I recall Tang mentioning that this was their lawyer’s instruction and they wanted to follow it exactly and if the transaction was rejected, they would take the risk.”

Two days after the transaction was executed, RBS Coutts Bank got back to DBMB to disclose the beneficiary name and Ho called and emailed Tang and Shahrol to ask for the name to be released.

“Shahrol replied by stating that the beneficiary name of the account is Good Star Limited.

“I then asked Shahrol why the name of the beneficiary is different from the name 1MDB had provided to DBMB on September 30, 2009. Shahrol informed me that Good Star Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of PetroSaudi International Limited and they wanted the funds transferred directly to their subsidiary.”

Good Star is a company controlled by Jho Low and is incorporated in the Seychelles.

Ho said that the bank had checked whether Good Star was on any sanction list or on any money laundering watch list but it yielded no result.

“We also trusted the representation of 1MDB. The CEO said it is a subsidiary and PetroSaudi wanted it to be transferred directly, we took it as good, we had no reason to not trust them.”

Wan Aizuddin then asked her, given what she knows now after she was called to give her statement by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, what she thought had happened.

“What was implied was that it was a fraud,” she said.

Due to the change in the beneficiary name, Ho said 1MDB had to go back to BNM to clarify whether the remittance can go through as it differed from their original approval, she said.

“Raymond Yeoh (CEO of DBMB) spoke to Wan Hanisah from BNM to obtain confirmation that BNM had no issue with the transfers going to two entities, that is 1MDB Petrosaudi and also Petrosaudi International Ltd, separately.

“She informed Raymond that it is a business decision of 1MDB. In essence, we understood that BNM had no objection to the transfer.”

Ho said that the bank, however, did not ask for an updated board of directors instruction and when bank officials met the whole board around 2009 or 2010, nothing was said about the US$1 billion remittance.

Najib is standing trial for corruption over the misappropriation of RM2.28 billion of 1MDB funds.

He faces 25 charges, four for abuse of power and 21 for money laundering, allegedly committed between 2011 and 2013. – June 21, 2022.