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KUALA LUMPUR: Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) was never made aware about three letters regarding Arab donation from an individual alleged to be a member of the Saudi royal family and which were addressed to former Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, the High Court was told today.

Former BNM governor Tan Sri Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz said the three letters, dated Nov 1, 2011; March 1, 2013 and June 1, 2014; had never been disclosed to the central bank and were only discovered during a joint raid by BNM and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) at AmBank on July 6, 2015.

“During the raid it was discovered the account codenamed AmPrivate Banking – MR (Najib’s account) had been closed and the three accounts (also Najib) that were opened in 2013 had also been closed. 

“Neither AmBank nor Datuk Seri Najib had forwarded these letters to BNM. In addition, two letters purportedly issued to BNM by the then group managing director, Ashok Ramamurthy, only surfaced during the investigation by BNM in July 2015,” she said, adding that there is no record that the two letters dated Sept 21, 2012 and April 30, 2013 were ever sent by AmBank or received by BNM.

Zeti, 76, who was BNM governor for 16 years from 2000, said this when reading out her witness statement during examination-in-chief by deputy public prosecutor Ahmad Akram Gharib at the former Pekan MP’s trial involving the misappropriation of RM2.3 billion from 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) funds.