KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Seri Najib Razak says his AmIslamic Bank account that received funds of US$70mil was a corporate social responsibility (CSR) account and not his personal one.
Najib, 71, testified at the High Court that the account was under his name but it was not used for his personal banking matters.
“It’s not my personal personal account.
“It’s a personal CSR account but it doesn’t qualify as a really personal account,” he said here yesterday.
Najib was answering a question by lawyer Datuk Lim Chee Wee in SRC International Sdn Bhd’s US$1.18bil civil suit against him and SRC International’s former CEO Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil, who is currently at large.
Najib was testifying as the only defendant witness while Lim represented SRC.
The account in question, now defunct, was a bank account ending in 694 and carrying the code name “AmPrivate Banking-MR”.
It is one of the five accounts Najib had with AmBank which was implicated in receiving funds from SRC and 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB).
At one point, Najib stumbled to answer a question about “documentary evidence” on the source of the US$70mil.
Lim: Based on your witness statement, you have made no reference as to the source of this US$70mil credited on Jan 3, 2012, into your personal AmIslamic account ending in 694, that it is not SRC or KWAP monies.
Najib: Yes.
Lim: You have not produced any documentary evidence to show that this US$70mil is not SRC or KWAP money. No documentary evidence.
Najib was quiet for a moment before replying, “Can I come back to that?”
Lim: Did you request for any independent verification as to the source of this US$70mil credited into your personal AmIslamic bank account?
Najib: I did not request because I don’t manage my accounts, okay? I was not in receipt of my account.
Under the new management, SRC filed the legal action in May 2021, alleging that Najib had committed breach of trust, abuse of power, misappropriated the company’s funds and personally benefited from it.
It named Najib along with its former directors Datuk Suboh Md Yassin, Mohammed Azhar Osman Khairuddin, Nik Faisal, Datuk Che Abdullah @ Rashidi Che Omar, Datuk Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi and Tan Sri Ismee Ismail in May 2021.
However, later, it removed six names from the suit and retained Najib and Nik Faisal as the first and second defendants.
Additionally, Najib has brought the former named SRC International directors as third-party respondents in the suit.
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 (RM4.87bil) in losses that it has suffered.
It is also seeking US$120mil (RM495mil) and US$2mil (RM8.2mil) from Najib and Nik Faisal respectively, on account of fraudulent breach of fiduciary duties and breach of trust.
The trial before Justice Ahmad Fairuz Zainol Abidin continues today.
