NAJIB Razak generated more than a million ringgit as interest earnings from AmBank for funds in his personal bank account, the Kuala Lumpur High Court heard today.  

Testifying in the convicted former prime minister’s 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) trial, prosecution witness Ambank Jalan Raja Chulan branch manager R. Uma Devi confirmed that several interest payments totalling RM1,253,924.80 were made in 2011 to Najib’s private AmBank account ending with ‘694’.  

Confirming a total of 11 interest entries to the ‘694’ account, Uma said that the payment amount varied monthly as they were made according to the balance in the account each month.  

Najib received RM5,214.10 on February 28, 2011, RM31,121.71 (March 31), RM28,979.44 (April 30), RM29,334.83 (May 31), RM44,371.21 (June 30), RM57,293,94 (July 31), RM122,360.35 (August 31), RM205,773.53 (September 30), RM211,130.87 (October 31), RM209,722.90 (November 30) and RM308,621.92 (December 31).  

“The following are the interests for the year of 2011 that were identified to have entered Najib’s AmIslamic Bank with an account number 211-202-200969-4,” she told the court today.  

Deputy prosecutor Mustafa Kunyalam confirmed the total interest amount received by Najib in his ‘694’ account for 2011 after verifying it with the witness.  

Mustafa said that the interest was calculated based on the balance in the account each month.  

Last week, Uma had testified that a total of RM60.5 million, made in two tranches, was transferred to Najib’s ‘694’ account. 

She said a sum of RM30.5 million was transferred on February 24, 2011, while the other RM30 million was credited into the same account on June 14, 2011. 

She, however, did not specify where the two payments came from.  

Today, Uma confirmed that the account ending with ‘694’ was opened on January 13, 2011 with a deposit of RM500 only. 

The account was closed on August 30, 2013.

In the opening statement of the 1MDB-Tanore trial in August 2019, the prosecution had contended that Najib received two tranches of US$10 million each in 2011, which was equivalent to RM60,629,893.43 in total.  

That money, the prosecution asserted, came from the botched 1MDB joint venture with PetroSaudi International Ltd, for which 1MDB had raised US1 billion but US$700 million was siphoned off by fugitive financier Low Taek Jho (better known as Jho Low) and used to pay kickbacks to various players, including Najib.  

Testifying further, Uma, reading out her witness statement, said that there were around 71 outgoing transactions between March and December 2011, in the form of cheques amounting to a total of RM15.22 million.  

Among the notable recipients of the cheques were Koperasi Wanita Pahang Berhad (RM50,000), Umno Tun Razak division (RM200,000), Shangri-La Hotel (RM395,782.40), Institut Terjemahan Negara Malaysia Bhd (RM610,000), and Umno Indera Mahkota division (RM200,000). 

Jakel Trading received RM180,000 on two different transactions.  

Besides that, there were also a number of transactions made to Yayasan Rahah, Semarak Konsortium Satu Sdn Bhd, Qalif Umar Creative, and ORB Solutions Sdn Bhd.  

Others were mostly single transactions to individuals and entities.  

Najib is facing four charges of using his position as the then prime minister to obtain bribes totalling RM2.3 billion from 1MDB and 21 charges of money laundering involving the same amount. 

He is already serving a 12-year jail term after failing in his final appeal at the Federal Court in the SRC International case. – September 12, 2022.