KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court was told that a raid at AmBank (M) Bhd in Jalan Raja Chulan on July 6, 2015, had revealed that some RM3.2bil went into the private bank accounts of former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.
This amount was far more than what was mentioned by the Pekan MP before this, said former Bank Negara governor Tan Sri Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz.
Zeti, who was testifying in Najib’s trial involving RM2.28bil of 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) funds, said that from the raid, the central bank found out that AmBank had omitted important information relating to Najib’s accounts’ transactions.
AmBank had also omitted several tranches from the International Transactions International System (ITIS), which showed funds were going into AmBank accounts but not Najib’s accounts, she added.
Zeti also said that up until her retirement on April 30, 2016, Najib had never asked about the transactions in his accounts.
The witness, who was questioned during an examination-in-chief by Deputy Public Prosecutor Kamal Baharin Omar, was referred to a news article by a news portal dated July 2, 2018, where Najib claimed that Zeti knew about the RM2.6bil that went into his AmIslamic account but no issues were raised.
According to Zeti, at that time, Bank Negara was informed that there was only one account that was fixed as “MY” in the Ringgit Operations Monitoring System (ROMS) but after the raid on the bank was conducted, the central bank found out that Najib had opened three more accounts in 2013.
She said Bank Negara would only take action against any account if it received reports from the commercial bank that managed the said account.
If there was any irregularity or suspicion, Bank Negara would then inform enforcement agencies.
“Bank Negara will then inform the law enforcement authorities like MACC (Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission) or the police.
“We cannot inform anyone else (of the report to the authorities), including the account holder,” she said.
Zeti had previously denied knowing the deposits of RM2.6bil into Najib’s accounts as claimed by Najib.
Najib, 68, is charged with 25 counts of abuse of power and money laundering involving RM2.28bil of 1MDB funds.
The trial continues before Justice Collin Lawrence Sequerah.
Credit: The Star : News Feed
