…
27 April 2019
Notable dates have emerged over the past few days of the Najib trial, during which the five accounts used to process money taken from 1MDB and its subsidiary SRC have been discussed.
It has been confirmed the original two major slush fund accounts in AmBank, which were used for the 2013 election and other expenses by Najib, were opened in January 2011 and then closed on August 30th 2013 after the May GE13 election.
These were current account 20112022009694 and a related savings account 201200220090481, which swelled to over a billion US dollars before GE13, thanks to several transfers that have been traced to 1MDB and SRC.
Najib has said that he had understood these funds to have been instead donated by an Arab royal, whom he has latterly implied was the former Saudi King Abdullah, now deceased. His defence is that he was tricked by fugitive financier Jho Low into receiving all this money.
An AmBank official detailed to the court how just prior to these August 30th closures Najib’s aids had set up three more current accounts at the bank (under his name) from which the prime minister was to draw several futher millions for various personal and political expenses.
These three later accounts were opened on July 31, 2013 said bank manager Uma Devi, which was a month before the two original accounts were closed. Most of the money in the closed accounts (some USD640 million) was sent back to a Jho Low entity at Falcon Bank in Singapore, namely Tanore Finance Corporation (it was Tanore Finance Corporation that had sent a whopping single payment of USD681 million stolen from 1MDB into the Najib accounts just prior to the election). RM12.5 million was transferred on to the new accounts.
Datelines
Pascal Najadi, son of AmBank founder Hussain Najadi, has pointed out that these moves to replace the accounts and reduce the sums held by Najib at AmBank were initiated just two days after the high profile assassination of his father in central KL on July 29th 2013. Najadi had purportedly made a number of official complaints in the run up to his death detailing his concerns that there had been high level corruption and abuse of certain accounts at the bank.
Whether or not that shocking event and Najadi’s alleged reports had provoked the minders of this stolen 1MDB money to close the most toxic accounts and open alternative ones has not been established. However, it is worth contextualising some of the other dates that also emerged during the course of this examination of Ms Devi.
In particular, she confirmed that these later three accounts, which were to be further funded by money transfered out of the 1MDB subsidiary SRC between 2014 and 2015, were themselves closed on March 9, 2015.
Sarawak Report notes that this date was just one week after this website published the very first explosive reports documenting the firsts thefts from 1MDB through its initial ‘joint venture’ with PetroSaudi. That first damning expose had come out on March 1st.
Uma Devi then gave more details on how those three later accounts, which are at the heart of the series of charges realating to this first court case, were funded. Following the initial RM12.5 million transferred from the two original accounts, a further RM64 million was credited into account (20112022011880) between July 8, 2014 and Feb 10, 2015.
It is now established that the source of these later sums of cash was the 1MDB subsidiary SRC International and the court has heard how much of the money was spent on Najib’s personal life-style (credit cards, home refurbishments, anti-ageing treatments etc) and political expenses, including paying allies and a number of propaganda and media outfits.
Najib no longers denies these transactions, according to his defence, he merely says that he was duped by Jho Low into thinking the money had come from the Saudi ‘donation’ rather than SRC.
Remaining questions
However, it will be interesting to see how the defence resolves certain issues that arise from these explanations on behalf of their client.*
The first is why did Najib consider it legitimate to spend the ‘Saudi donation’ money on diamonds, holidays and other personal luxuries, when he has several times said publicly that none of this money was spent on ‘personal’ things?
The claim likewise clashes with earlier statements that Najib at least thought that all the unused money was returned to the ‘donor’ after the election (in fact, after it was returned to Tanore Finance Corporation Jho Low splashed most of it on buying and selling artwork and other suspected laundering activities).
The second and even trickier matter relates to the subsequent RM64 million entering those three accounts between July 2014 and February 2015. The money was stolen from SRC International but Najib has said he thought it had come from the ‘Saudi donor’.
Put simply, if Najib believed he had returned all those hundreds of millions to the ‘Saudi donor’ back in August 2013 how could he at the same time have been of the understanding that those millions entering his new accounts a whole year later had come from that self same source?
Did he think he was still receiving money that he had sent back a year before?
Yesterday, the AmBank manager made clear that the named owner of a bank account is the person legally responsible for transfers both in and out of that account, whether or not they have designated someone else to manage it or sign cheques.
Yet it would seem that Najib is resting on the argument that he was taken in by his employees who stuffed money into accounts he allowed them to manage. If so, he would have to have swallowed a series of changing and improbable lies yet to be clarified before the court or to have turned a blind eye to the reasons behind an increasingly healthy bank account.
The courts will decide if he (and therefore presumably the rest of us) can get away with that sort of thing.
^amended. This article previously queried whether the defendant would take the stand, which is presently not at issue.
SARAWAK REPORT
https://www.malaysia-chronicle.com/?p=163275
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10 February 2019
..
The Coverage
Gangsters Were Paid RM30 Million To Murder My Dad ( AmBank Chairman Hussain Najadi ) – Is It Link To Najib 1MDB 2.6 Billion AmBank Acc?
My Father Died For Reporting Corruption At AmBank EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang has urged police to reopen the investigation into Hussain’s murder case to ensure that it had nothing to do with the 1MDB controversy.
The DAP veteran, citing recent allegations in the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) that billions of ringgit from the state investor were deposited into the private AmBank account of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, said the police should find out if the unusually large transfer of funds to and from the account had been noticed by the slain banker.
“In this connection, I call on the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar to reopen investigations into the murder of Hussain… to ascertain whether the murder had any links with the 1MDB scandal,” Lim said in a statement here.
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10 September 2018
Pascal Najadi, son of the murdered banker Hussein Najadi, former Chairman of AmBank, believes that his father had attempted to make a police report and to notify the banking authorities about the mysterious billion dollar payments that had entered Najib’s account at Ambank.
Why was Shafee present when the body of Hussain Najiadi was being transferred by ambulance to the hospital and why did he take over the handling of affairs, including a swift burial?
Najib paid Shafee out of his own bank account instead (from money that Najib says he thought was donated from the Arab royal, but has also now admitted came from 1MDB instead).
Strangely, Najib did not pay the money in one cheque. As Sarawak Report originally correctly reported, Shafee received one payment RM4.3 million in 2013 and a later payment of RM5.2 million in 2014. That RM5,200,000 received in February 2014 came just a fortnight before the Appeal Court overturned the earlier acquittal of Anwar, after Najib had specially brought in Shafee to handle the prosecution case.
Shafee still says this was not a payment for those services however. He still claims that he did that bit of work for UMNO for free – or rather he claims he did it “for the country”.
Pascal Najadi, the grieving son of the murdered banker Hussein Najadi, former Chairman of AmBank, has pointed out that the payment in September 2013 came just a month after his father was shot dead.
Shafee appeared outside the hospital to handle the Najadi murder
Najadi has claimed that his father had attempted to make a police report and to notify the banking authorities about the mysterious billion dollar payments that had entered Najib’s account at his former bank shortly before his assasination.
He also says that Shafee had mysteriously appeared at the scene as his father’s body was transferred to hospital and had aggressively taken over the handling of affairs, including a swift burial before he could reach his father’s side. He has asked if the two matters might be connected and who paid Shafee to turn up at the mortuary to take control?
Malaysians have been left to digest Shafee’s own explanation of events and the fact he has admitted now to lying in public about the whole affair. In the end they will have to see how he fares in court.
– Sarawak Report
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8 July 2015
Re-open Ambank murder probe, says @limkitsiang
DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang has urged police to re-open the murder case of Ambank founder Hussein Ahmad Najadi. Lim, who is also Gelang Patah MP, said this was to ensure that Hussein’s death had nothing to do with the 1MDB scandal.
Lim’s call comes as a special taskforce probes allegations that 1MDB’s funds were deposited into Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s private bank accounts at Ambank.
“I call on the Inspector-General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar to re-open investigations into the murder of the founder of AmBank, Hussain Ahmad Najadi…who was shot dead in broad daylight in the centre of Kuala Lumpur on July 29, 2013 and to ascertain whether his murder had any links with the 1MDB scandal,” said Lim. …
“The police should investigate whether it is true that in March 2013, Hussain had reported to Bank Negara about significant amounts of money deposited into Najib’s personal accounts and subsequently about withdrawal of significant amounts of money from these bank accounts; and that Hussain lodged a police report on the above matters on 28th July 2013 when no actions were taken by Bank Negara,” said Lim.
Hussain was shot dead near Lorong Ceylon, Kuala
Lumpur. http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/304369 —
…
27 October 2017
October 27, 2017
Former tow-truck driver found guilty of Najadi’s murder in retrial
KUALA LUMPUR: Ex-tow truck driver Koong Swee Kuan, 48, was sentenced to death after he was found guilty of the murder of Arab-Malaysian Development Bank founder Hussain Najadi four years ago.
Judicial Commissioner Ab Karim Ab Rahman also sentenced Koong to 18 years jail for attempted murder of Najadi’s widow, Cheong Mei Kuen.
He said the defence failed to raise a reasonable doubt in the prosecution’s case.
“The defence story is a concoction and inherently improbable,” Ab Karim said in his oral verdict.
Koong, wearing a white singlet and black pants, was calm when the judge imposed the sentence.
…
2 November 2015
Najadi murder: Why was alleged mastermind freed, asks Gobind
Najadi murder: Why was alleged mastermind freed, asks Gobind http://twib.in/l/B86BLaoXEzo | https://twibble.io
A DAP lawmaker today demanded that Putrajaya to explain the reason for the claimed release of Lim Yuen Soo, the alleged mastermind behind the murder of AmBank founder Hussain Najadi.
“I want an answer. We need an answer. How can the suspect be allowed to go free?” asked Gobind Singh Deo (DAP-Puchong) when debating 2016 Budget at Dewan Rakyat tonight.
He said Lim, the main suspect in the murder, was arrested upon his arrival in Kuala Lumpur from China in early October but was released eight days later.
“I want to ask the Prime Minister’s Department, how can we assure the citizens of this country that justice will prevail?” asked Gobind further.
Kuala Lumpur CID chief Zainuddin Ahmad has confirmed Lim’s release saying there was insufficient evidence to charge him.
It was reported that the Attorney-General’s Chambers, which received the investigation paper from the police on Oct 20, had decided not to charge him.
The businessman had allegedly paid Kong Swee Kwan RM20,000 to gun down Hussain on July 29, 2013 at Jalan Ceylon in Kuala Lumpur.
Kong was arrested in September 2013 and sentenced to death a year later, but Lim remained elusive despite police announcing in October 2013 that it was seeking Interpol’s help to track down the alleged mastermind.
“We need to put ourselves in the shoes of the families,” he added.
“Why we can’t offer the family a simple answer? Are the police trying to hide something ? We don’t know,” he said.
https://www.malaysiakini.com/news/318179
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‘Mastermind’ behind AmBank founder’s murder released
‘Mastermind’ behind AmBank founder’s murder released https://www.malaysiakini.com/news/318154
The alleged mastermind behind the murder of AmBank founder Hussain Najadi has been released because there was ‘insufficient evidence’ to charge him.
Kuala Lumpur CID chief Zainuddin Ahmad confirmed that Lim Yuen Soo was released after eight days of detention.
“There was insufficient evidence (to charge him), so we released him,” he told Malaysiakini.
Zainuddin said Lim was released after police conducted a thorough investigation and after the matter was referred to the Attorney-General’s Chambers.
Although Lim is no longer in detention, Zainuddin confirmed that he was still in the country.
Lim was detained as he returned to the country from China, early last month.
Not acceptable by any standards
Meanwhile, Hussain’s son, Pascal Najadi, condemned the release and said it was not acceptable.
“It’s a big shock and not acceptable by any international standards.
“How can the assassin be freed? We protest his release at the strongest level,” said Pascal, who is currently in Moscow, Russia.
He said that this smells of “state-sponsored cover-up”.
“Serious questions about the defunct justice in Malaysia now must needed to be asked.”
https://www.malaysiakini.com/news/318154
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Hussain was killed four months after the first alleged transactions involving Najib’s bank accounts.
—
Jul 11, 2015
Son: Man behind bank founder’s killing in M’sia
Pascal Najadi, the son of slain AmBank founder Hussain Najadi, claimed the man who purportedly ordered his father’s killing has returned to Malaysia under an alias.
Speaking to Malaysiakini from Russia in a Skype interview, Pascal said he was informed of the suspect Lim Yuen Soo’s return by a source on condition of anonymity.
He also claimed Lim was connected to the wife of a local senior politician.
…
Malaysiakini’s investigation also revealed Lim is more than a businessman who ran “entertainment outlets and carpark businesses” as described by police.
Research showed that Lim owns a security firm named Active Force Security Services Sdn Bhd, which describes its nature of business as “guards and security services”.
According to a Companies Commission of Malaysia (CCM) search, Lim controls 30 percent of the company. The information was last updated on Jan 5, 2015.
The other two shareholders are former Melaka Tengah police chief Mohd Khasni Mohd Nor, who also holds a 30 percent stake in the company, and one Ismail Mohd Noh who controls the remaining 40 percent.
Lim had allegedly paid Kong Swee Kwan RM20,000 to gun down Pascal’s father, Hussain, on July 29, 2013 near Jalan Ceylon in Kuala Lumpur.
Kong was arrested in September 2013 and sentenced to death a year later but Lim remained elusive despite police announcing in October 2013 that it was seeking Interpol’s help to track down the mastermind who was believed to be in Australia.
So it came as a surprise to Pascal when inspector-general of police Khalid Abu Bakar on Wednesday abruptly declared the case, with the shooter already convicted, as “solved”.
It is for this reason, Pascal said he had not relayed the information about Lim’s possible return to the Malaysian police whom he described as “unreliable”.
http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/304800
—
Free Malaysia Today
Son adamant Hussain Najadi’s murder linked to 1MDB
Pascal Najadi disputes IGP’s denial, says matter not within Khalid’ field of competence.
KUALA LUMPUR: Pascal Najadi today slammed Inspector General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar for brushing aside suggestions that his father’s murder may have been linked to events surrounding 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).
He was responding to Khalid’s statement reported by FMT yesterday denying any connection between Hussain Najadi’s assassination and the on-going 1MDB investigation.
In a Facebook posting earlier today addressed to “Malaysian citizens and observers from all over the world”, Pascal questioned the IGP’s comment.
“By simply denying that there is any link to 1MDB and the assassination of my father Hussain Najadi, the IGP draws even more attention from us the family and the general public,” he said.
“How come he can say this as there has been no investigation,” Pascal asked, adding that the matter was not within Khalid’s “field of competence.”
He insisted that it was the duty of the Attorney- General to pursue the case under Article 145 of the Federal Constitution.
“It is a criminal offence that was committed in Malaysia and the mastermind killer is known to the Malaysians and to the world through Interpol,” he claimed.
—
—
There’s more to dad’s murder, says Pascal Najadi http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/304418
Pascal Najadi believes there is more to his father and AmBank founder Hussain Ahmad Najadi’s murder, and accused Malaysian police of allowing the mastermind behind the assassination to escape. Pascal, in an interview with Sarawak Report published today, said even though his father’s shooter was arrested but the mastermind who commissioned the assassination was allowed to flee. “The Malaysians never pursued him and it’s been dropped,” he was quoted as saying. Pascal also dismissed speculation that his father was killed for helping a temple to stop its land from being acquired for development. … Instead, Pascal believed that his father’s death was related to corruption and the perpetrator had since fled the country. “I have no explanation for his execution except corruption at the bank and the mastermind was let go and escaped via Sydney. “Malaysia have not followed up via Interpol. He was Malaysian, he boarded a flight to Sydney even though he was an immediate suspect. “The Australians followed this mastermind to Shanghai, but Malaysia never pursued him,” he was quoted as saying. http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/304418 —
IGP @KBAB51: AmBank founder’s murder no link to @1MDB http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/304434
Police have poured cold water on rumours that AmBank founder Hussain Ahmad Najadi was murdered because he wanted to expose the 1MDB scandal. Inspector-general of police Khalid Abu Bakar said there was no link between the murder and the 1MDB case. “I confirm that there was no police report lodged by Hussain on the day before his murder that there was a (large) deposit. “There is no link between Hussain’s murder and the 1MDB case, none whatsoever,” he said. Speaking to reporters at KL Sentral, the top cop said police already know the motive behind the murder, and the killer had been sentenced last year. He added the allegations had originated from a blog which prompted Hussain’s son, Pascal Najadi, to make similar allegations. “He made the allegation after reading the blog which means someone else made the claims first,” Khalid said. He said police were investigating the source of the rumour and will take action against those who spread false news. http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/304434 — Malay Mail Online Any link between 1MDB and AmBank founder’s murder? Kit Siang wants cops to find out KUALA LUMPUR, July 7 — Lim Kit Siang has asked the police to reopen investigations into the 2013 murder of Arab-Malaysian Development Bank (AmBank) founder Hussain Ahmad Najadi, saying it could help lay to rest rumours of a possible link between the case and the ongoing 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) controversy. … Hussain was assassinated on July 29 two years ago while his wife was seriously injured in the shooting, when they emerged from the Kuan Yin Temple in Lorong Ceylon. Hussain, 75, who had Iranian citizenship and permanent Malaysian residency, was the chairman and chief executive of multi-billion dollar corporation AIAK Group. He had established the Arab-Malaysian Development Bank in 1975, now known as AmBank. … Last week, allegations in a report by WSJ on the 1MDB controversy set tongues wagging again about Hussain’s assassination. According to the international business daily, some US$700 million (RM2.6 billion) from the state investor were deposited into the prime minister’s private accounts. … Hussain’s son Pascal Najadi had written an article that was posted on web portal Malaysia Chronicle today, in which he labelled it “ironic” that the same bank his father founded was where 1MDB’s money has allegedly been uncovered. In the article, Pascal explained that he and his family had lived “in fear of our wellbeing”, sold all their assets and left Malaysia for good in early 2014 and now feel “safe” in Switzerland. – See more at: http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/any-link-between-1mdb-and-ambank-founders-murder-kit-siang-wants-cops-to-fi?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed#sthash.85PEYm0R.dpuf
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Re-open Ambank murder probe, says @limkitsiang http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/304369
DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang has urged police to re-open the murder case of Ambank founder Hussein Ahmad Najadi. Lim, who is also Gelang Patah MP, said this was to ensure that Hussein’s death had nothing to do with the 1MDB scandal. Lim’s call comes as a special taskforce probes allegations that 1MDB’s funds were deposited into Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s private bank accounts at Ambank. “I call on the Inspector-General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar to re-open investigations into the murder of the founder of AmBank, Hussain Ahmad Najadi (photo) who was shot dead in broad daylight in the centre of Kuala Lumpur on July 29, 2013 and to ascertain whether his murder had any links with the 1MDB scandal,” said Lim. … “The police should investigate whether it is true that in March 2013, Hussain had reported to Bank Negara about significant amounts of money deposited into Najib’s personal accounts and subsequently about withdrawal of significant amounts of money from these bank accounts; and that Hussain lodged a police report on the above matters on 28th July 2013 when no actions were taken by Bank Negara,” said Lim. Hussain was shot dead near Lorong Ceylon, Kuala Lumpur. http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/304369 —
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