Kuala Lumpur: The investigating officer in Najib Razak’s 1MDB case told the High Court today that certain transactions recorded in the former prime minister’s AmBank accounts as having taken place in 2011 involved funds which originated from Saudi Arabia.
Foo Wei Min, from Bukit Aman’s commercial crime investigation department, said that in the course of their investigation, Najib had told the authorities he had been expecting donations from Saudi Arabia.
Cross-examined by Najib’s lawyer, Shafee Abdullah, Foo confirmed that some of the transactions came from one “Prince Faisal Turki Al Saud” and the “Ministry of Finance Riyadh”.
However, he said the police did not obtain bank statements from Saudi Arabia as part of their investigation.
He said an investigating officer from the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), Nur Aida Arifin, provided copies of bank statements from several foreign countries to the police, but not from Saudi Arabia.
Shafee then asked Foo if he knew the source of the money which was transferred by “Prince Faisal Turki Al Saud” and the “Ministry of Finance Riyadh” to Najib’s account.
Foo said the money originated from 1MDB.
Under further questioning, he disagreed with Shafee that there was a “gap” in his investigation since the police did not obtain bank statements from the two parties.
He said his investigation focused on the receipt, use and transfer of ill-gotten funds in Najib’s account.
Najib is standing trial for 25 charges of abuse of power and money laundering with alleged 1MDB funds amounting to RM2.28 billion deposited into his AmBank accounts between February 2011 and December 2014.
The hearing before Justice Collin Lawrence Sequerah continues tomorrow.
