1MDB trial: Najib unaware of ex-aide's bank account, says defence

Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah (right) is leading former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak's defence team. PHOTO: KOSMO

KUALA LUMPUR • The defence team for Najib Razak yesterday sought to distance the former Malaysian premier from orders he allegedly gave an aide through fugitive financier Low Taek Jho to open a bank account with the Singapore branch of Swiss bank BSI in 2012.

During cross examination, lead defence counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah said Mr Amhari Efendi Nazaruddin, who was then a special officer to Najib, had failed to check if the instruction to open overseas bank accounts, purportedly for political purposes, was actually from the then premier.

"You never communicated this fact to him, that Low asked you to open the account... You literally believed him (Low) and did not bother to come back and tell your boss (Najib)," Tan Sri Shafee said in the High Court.

He added that until Mr Amhari's testimony on Wednesday, his client was unaware of the existence of the account.

The former aide had testified earlier in the week that Low made the request to open the accounts after receiving a "nod" from Najib.

Mr Amhari is the eighth prosecution witness in the hearing on the alleged role of the financier - better known as Jho Low - in the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) corruption case.

Responding to Mr Shafee's assertions yesterday, Mr Amhari said it was not easy to see the former leader as he was a junior officer.

Instead, he took his cue from his immediate superior and Najib's then principal private secretary, Datuk Seri Azlin Alias.

"At that time, the one who meets Najib is Azlin. I did not have the opportunity like Azlin to meet Najib," he said. Mr Azlin died in 2015 in a helicopter crash.

Mr Amhari also denied Mr Shafee's claim that the money deposited in the Swiss bank account was "your reward for helping Low in many transactions".

On Wednesday, Mr Amhari said he was contacted in 2016 by a BSI officer from Switzerland informing him that more than US$800,000 (S$1.1 million) had been deposited into an account in his name.

He added that the bank later instructed him to cash out the balance, as it was ending its dealings with him, but he did not act on it.

He also said that Low lent him US$200,000 as a bridging loan to buy a home in Kota Damansara, in Selangor state, in 2010.

Mr Amhari described Low, now a wanted man, as a "good lender" who did not pester him for repayment.

The hearing will continue next Tuesday at 9.30am.

Najib is facing 21 counts of money laundering and four counts of abuse of power for allegedly receiving illegal transfers of RM2.28 billion (S$753 million) between 2011 and 2014 from 1MDB, a state fund that he controlled.

Public anger at the scandal was among factors leading to his ouster, as his Barisan Nasional coalition lost its six-decade grip on power in the Malaysian general election last year.

Nadirah H. Rodzi

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on September 06, 2019, with the headline 1MDB trial: Najib unaware of ex-aide's bank account, says defence. Subscribe