Najib received US$30m from 1MDB funds in 2012, court told
Published on: Tuesday, September 19, 2023
By: FMT
Najib Razak is standing trial on 25 charges of abuse of power and money laundering involving alleged 1MDB funds amounting to RM2.28 billion.
PETALING JAYA: Former prime minister Najib Razak received funds totalling US$30 million (RM140.8 million) which originated from US$1.64 billion belonging to a 1MDB subsidiary in 2012, the High Court heard today.
Relying on multiple banking documents to show the money trail, Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) analyst Adam Ariff Roslan explained that the funds which entered Najib’s AmIslamic accounts could all be traced back to 1MDB subsidiary, 1MDB Energy (Langat) Ltd.
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Adam also testified how US$20 million from the 1MDB subsidiary was channelled to several entities, including a company belonging to Malaysian fugitive Low Taek Jho’s associate Tan Kim Loong, before reaching Najib’s private AmIslamic bank account.
These multi-layered transactions all took place within a month, reported the Malay Mail.
Adam also said that 1MDB Energy issued a bond to raise funds to buy energy assets and on Oct 19, 2012, received US$1.64 billion in its Falcon Bank account after the bond issuance.
He said on the same day, 1MDB Energy transferred US$790 million to the British Virgin Islands-incorporated (BVI) company Aabar Investments PJS Ltd’s BSI bank account.
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Before Aabar Investments PJS received the US$790 million in its account, its last balance was US$15 million.
Adam also showed how Aabar Investments PJS then purportedly invested about US$285 million into the Cistenique Investment Fund (CIF) on Oct 23, 2012.
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Later, on Nov 7, 2012, Aabar Investments PJS purportedly invested US$95 million in Enterprise Emerging Markets Fund (EEMF).
Aabar Investments PJS’s monies in CIF and the EEMF were then channelled to Blackstone Asia Real Estate Partners’ Standard Chartered bank account within a day or two, before the portion totalling US$30 million entered Najib’s account.
Adam added that, based on bank documents, two transfers of over RM15 million and over RM75 million went into Najib’s account, making it a total of over RM90 million.
The prosecution claims this was the second of four phases of multiple transactions in Najib’s accounts.
Najib is standing trial on 25 charges of abuse of power and money laundering with alleged 1MDB funds amounting to RM2.28 billion deposited in his AmBank accounts between February 2011 and December 2014.
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