KUALA LUMPUR: Some US$120mil of the loan from Retirement Fund Inc (KWAP) to SRC International Sdn Bhd landed in Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s personal bank account between 2011 and 2012, the High Court here was told.
Offshore asset recovery specialist Angela Barkhouse testified that the money entered Najib’s personal AmBank account through three transactions from a company called Blackstone Asia Real Estate Partners.
The first tranche of US$70mil was deposited on Dec 29, 2011, with the second and third tranches of US$25mil each on March 12 and May 22, 2012.
“These transactions were tagged with the reference ‘AMPrivate Banking’ in Blackstone bank statements, and I was able to approximately match incoming amounts in Ringgit Malaysia to the transactions out of the Blackstone account in US dollars by applying a currency conversion.
“(Former SRC International chief executive officer) Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil also received US$82,000 from Blackstone Asia between Jan 27 and Feb 8, 2012,” she said in court on Monday.
An expert in financial investigation, Barkhouse is the second witness in the hearing of a lawsuit filed by SRC International against former prime minister Najib and Nik Faisal over allegations of breach of trust and duties.
The Briton was testifying via Zoom before Justice Ahmad Fairuz Zainol Abidin here.
Barkhouse also told the court that funds were moved out of Blackstone to various intermediaries, including Najib’s stepson’s film production company Red Granite Capital Ltd (US$17.5mil), Brightstone Jewellery Ltd (US$24.8mil), and Alsen Chance Holdings Ltd (US$168.5mil), both reported to be owned by Jho Low’s associate Tan Kim Loong.
The witness said that based on the evidence available to her, particularly her review of banking information relevant to Alsen Chance and Brightstone, the companies were shell companies that conducted no legitimate business other than laundering funds misappropriated from 1Malaysia Development Berhad and SRC International.
Under the new management, SRC filed the legal action in May 2021, alleging that Najib had committed a breach of trust and abuse of power, misappropriated the company’s funds, and personally benefited from them.
It named Najib, along with its former directors Datuk Suboh Md Yassin, Datuk Mohammed Azhar Osman Khairuddin, Nik Faisal, Datuk Che Abdullah @ Rashidi Che Omar, Datuk Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi and Tan Sri Ismee Ismail.
However, it later removed six names from the suit, while retaining Najib and Nik Faisal as the first and second defendants.
Additionally, Najib brought in the former SRC International directors as third-party respondents in the suit.
Najib was SRC’s emeritus advisor from May 1, 2012, until March 4, 2019. The company is seeking damages, interests, costs and a court declaration that Najib is responsible for the company’s losses due to his breach of duties and trust, and is demanding that Najib pay back the US$1.18bil in losses that it has suffered.
It is also seeking US$120mil and US$2mil from Najib and Nik Faisal respectively, on account of fraudulent breach of fiduciary duties and breach of trust.
Najib has been serving a jail sentence at the Kajang Prison since Aug 23, 2022, after being convicted of misappropriating RM42mil in SRC International funds.
After he filed a petition for a royal pardon on Sept 2, 2022, his jail term was reduced from 12 years to six years and the fine was reduced to RM50mil from RM210mil. The hearing continues today.
