At Najib trial, ex-director drops jaw in shock when shown bank account opened secretly in SRC name
(MMO) – Datuk Suboh Md Yassin became the second former director of SRC International Sdn Bhd to drop his jaw in shock when shown details of a bank account registered in the company name at the trial of Pekan MP Datuk Seri Najib Razak today.
Under questioning from Najib’s defence lawyer Harvinderjit Singh, the prosecution’s 42nd witness told the High Court that he was unaware there was an AmIslamic bank account ending in the number -736 opened under SRC International as it had never been shown to the directors of the former 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) subsidiary when he was on its board.
Harvinderjit: Datuk, were you aware the account was opened under SRC, under the account ending-736?
Suboh: No.
Harvinderjit: Were you aware of the people reflected in the document could operate the account by signature? Were you aware of the existence of this account with this name of individuals? Was the board aware?
Suboh: I don’t think so.
Harvinderjit: None of the other directors are noted as being authorised signatories of these accounts. Datuk, genuinely you are shocked?
Suboh: Yes (jaw drops). Ini macam pun boleh! (Even this is possible!)
Before Suboh, another former SRC International director Tan Sri Ismee Ismail who had testified in the trial, similarly expressed shock at the existence of the account ending-736.
Ismee, just as Suboh did today, indicated that he had been kept in the dark when he was told the account details in court concerning the first transfer of RM2 billion loan from Retirement Fund (Incorporated) (KWAP).
During today’s trial, Harvinderjit told the court that the covert account was opened by SRC company chief executive Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil who registered signatories other than himself who were not members of the company’s board of directors.
Suboh also agreed with Harvinderjit that documents of the account ending-736 were never shown to him by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) when its officers recorded his statement during investigations.
He also agreed when asked by the defence lawyer if the covertly opened bank account in SRC International’s name, done without knowledge of is directors, amounted to fraud and deception of the board.
“Yes. What motivated him, I don’t know,” Suboh said in reply.
The lawyer then asked Suboh if there was any way his signature could appear on a form known as Rentas (short for Real Time Electronic Transfer of Funds and Securities) dated December 15, 2014 to transfer RM20 million from the SRC International’s account ending-650 to the “secret 736 account”.
“If they can get my signature,” he replied.
Harvnderjit: You mean as in scanned? The MACC never showed this to you?
Suboh: No.
Harvinderjit: The MACC never told you about the ending-736 account?
Suboh: No.
Suboh also testified that he was not aware of the RM2 billion funds from KWAP entering the account ending-736, or where the money ended up.
Harvinderjit: You can see from this statement that on 29 August 2011, only six days after your first board meeting, RM2 billion came into this account in four tranches of RM500 million each?
Suboh: Yes.
Harvinderjit: The significance of this is, the first KWAP loan goes into an account the board of directors are not aware about, you agree?
Suboh: Yes.
Harvinderjit: And you can see from the documents, the entire RM2 billion goes in and then goes out of the account the same day.
Suboh: Yes.
Harvinderjit: You are not aware where it went, you agree?
Suboh: Yes.
Harvinderjit: Because you were unaware of the account, you can’t be aware of where the RM2 billion went, you agree?
Suboh: I am not sure where the money went.
These were revealed during proceedings today, where former prime minister Najib is on trial for seven charges of abuse of position, criminal breach of trust and money-laundering over RM42 million of SRC International’s funds.
During the course of the trial, witnesses have testified that the Retirement Fund (Incorporated) disbursed a total of RM4 billion in loans in 2011 and 2012 to SRC International, with money allegedly flowing through other companies before being transferred into Najib’s accounts.
At the time of the first loan application, SRC International was the wholly-owned subsidiary of 1MDB which was owned by the Finance Ministry’s Minister of Finance Incorporated (MoF Inc); while SRC International was parked directly under MoF Inc by the time of the second loan application.
Najib’s trial resumes in the afternoon before High Court Judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali.
