Defence expected to grill Ihsan Perdana CEO on RM42m transfers and his exchanges with YR1M of cials over the funds

by RAHIMI YUNUS / pic by TMR FILE PIX

FORMER Prime Minister (PM) Datuk Seri Mohd Najib Razak’s SRC International Sdn Bhd trial today will unravel more details on the mysterious transactions between Ihsan Perdana Sdn Bhd and Yayasan Rakyat 1Malaysia (YR1M).

The defence will cross-examine Ihsan Perdana MD Datuk Dr Shamsul Anwar Sulaiman, who had testified that he was excluded from the full disclosure of the source of fund credited into the company.

He also claimed he had no knowledge of the recipients of the multimillion ringgit transactions, which he himself approved.

Dr Shamsul Anwar testified that there were three credit transfers into Ihsan Perdana’s account — RM40 million on Dec 24, 2014, RM5 million (Feb 5, 2015) and RM5 million (Feb 6, 2015) — totalling RM50 million.

At the material time, he said he did not know about the source of the RM40 million received on Dec 24, 2015.

But, before the credit transfer, he said YR1M project director Dennis See had pre-empted him that Ihsan Perdana’s account would be borrowed to keep a certain amount of money and would be transit savings before the fund would be transferred out.

He also told the court that Ihsan Perdana transferred RM27 million and RM5 million on Dec 26, 2014, and RM10 million (Feb 9, 2015) — totalling RM42 million — to two accounts with AmBank Group.

Dr Shamsul Anwar said he had to follow directives from YR1M CEO Ung Su Ling and See to transfer the funds to the two AmBank accounts because they were funders of Ihsan Perdana.

“As far as I could remember, Ung and See ordered me to transfer the funds to AmPrivate Banking-1MY and AmPrivate Banking-MY accounts even though I did not know who the owner of the funds was,” Dr Shamsul Anwar told the court on May 15.

That two AmBank accounts had previously been established as Najib’s personal bank accounts.

The prosecution’s 37th witness testified that he only knew about the source of the RM42 million funds was from SRC International, via its unit Gandingan Mentari Sdn Bhd, after he had read an article published by The Wall Street Journal while he was in Belgium in July 2015.

He said SRC International former CEO Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil had confirmed to him that SRC International did transfer the money to Ihsan Perdana through Gandingan Mentari.

“I would not have transferred RM42 million if I knew that it would go into the former PM’s private bank accounts,” he said.

The defence is expected to grill him on that matter and his exchanges with YR1M officials over the fund transfers in and out of the company.

The prosecutors will try to prove that Najib is guilty of seven crimes of criminal breach of trust, money laundering and power abuse involving RM42 million allegedly misappropriated from SRC International — a former unit of 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB).

The hearing — Malaysia’s first former PM to face criminal charges — had gone on for 18 days, but it is only 30% complete.

The prosecution is expected to call 40 more witnesses. The proceedings will continue for the next two months before Najib’s 1MDB’s RM2.28 billion fund trial slated for Aug 19.