Najib: RM90m in 2012 was Saudi king’s ‘political donation’ to me too

Malay Mail

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 5 — Former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak today said he believed funds totalling RM90 million which entered his personal AmIslamic bank account in 2012 was also a donation from the late Saudi Ruler King Abdullah.

On trial for the misappropriation of RM2 billion belonging to 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), Najib testified in his own defence that he told the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) during investigations of his belief that the RM90,899,927.28 (RM90 million) came directly from King Abdullah or Saudi Arabia’s funds.

Before he received the RM90 million in his AmIslamic account from the company Blackstone Asia Real Estate Partners’ account, Najib said he was “informed personally” by King Abdullah “that he would be making political donations personally to me”.

Responding to the allegation that the RM90 million in his bank account could be traced back to 1MDB, Najib insisted that it was a Saudi donation.

“Regarding the funds received in my AmIslamic account in Malaysia, as I have explained during the recording of my statement to the MACC, these funds were transferred from a company named Blackstone Asia Real Estate Partners.

“At the time, I genuinely believed this company to be owned by King Abdullah or the Saudi Arabian government, and I understood these funds to be a donation or contribution to me,” he told the High Court today.

Najib said there was a donation letter informing him that the alleged Saudi donation would come through Blackstone Asia Real Estate Partners.

He said this purported donation letter was shared with AmBank’s compliance department, which he said reviewed and cleared the transfer of RM90 million into his account.

Najib also commented on an earlier transfer in August 2011 and November 2011 of funds totalling RM243,699,926.02 (RM243 million) from Saudi Arabia’s Finance Ministry’s Riyad Bank account and which were processed by the Saudi Monetary Agency.

Najib said he had immediately concluded that the RM243 million which entered his AmIslamic account in 2011 were part of the donations promised by King Abdullah and which he was expecting to receive.

Asked by his lead defence lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah if he knew why Saudi’s Finance Ministry made the two transfers totalling RM243 million to him, Najib said: “Because that was the basis of King Abdullah’s commitment to me and this is a clear indication that it came from the government.”

He said that the Saudi Monetary Agency is equivalent to Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM), adding: “So you have the Ministry of Finance sending it via their central bank to my account, so I don’t think you can get more official than that.”

He said that AmIslamic Bank and BNM did not flag these transfers of money into his AmIslamic account as suspicious.

He added that both banks did not ask him about the legitimacy of the alleged donations which he said he had declared to them.

Last Monday, Najib also claimed in the High Court that a RM60 million he had received in 2011 in his personal AmIslamic account was part of the Saudi king’s donation and financial aid to help him be returned as prime minister to the government of the day in the upcoming general election.

In this trial, Najib is facing 25 charges, including for allegedly abusing his position – as prime minister, finance minister, chairman of 1MDB’s board of advisers – for his own financial benefit such as the RM60 million sum received in 2011 and the RM90 million sum received in 2012.

Najib’s 1MDB trial before judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah resumes tomorrow morning.

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