Najib never sued Ambank while he was account holder - Witness

KUALA LUMPUR: An Ambank officer told the High Court today that Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak has never filed any lawsuit against the bank for mishandling his accounts while he was an account holder.

Ambank (M) Berhad Jalan Raja Chulan branch manager, R. Uma Devi, 43, who held the position since 2015 said Najib also never lodged any complaint to the bank about his bank statements.

"On monthly intervals, the bank will be sending a bank statement listing all transactions made in the account to its customers. As far as my knowledge, even during the SRC International case, there was no dispute or complaints made by Datuk Seri Najib regarding his bank accounts statement," she said.

The 37th prosecution witness said this while answering additional questions from Senior Deputy Public Prosecutor Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram at the Pekan MP's trial over the misappropriation of RM2.3 billion in funds from 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).

Sri Ram: Between 2015 and 2018, did the accused file any proceedings against your bank for mishandling his account, to your knowledge?

Uma Devi: To my knowledge, no.

Earlier, Sri Ram was questioning the witness on the evidence she gave during the SRC International trial, where she admitted her statement was accepted and never disputed by both the High Court and the Court of Appeal.

Last week, Uma Devi testified Najib held five accounts with Ambank, one savings account ending with number 694, and four current accounts, namely AmIslamic (ending with number 481), AmPrivate Banking- 1MY (880), AmPrivate Banking-Y1MY (898) and AmPrivate Banking-MY (906).

On Dec 10, 2019, Najib sued AmBank Islamic Bhd and its former relationship manager Joanna Yu Ging Ping over the management of accounts under his name, namely accounts ending 694, 880, 898 and 906 which Najib claimed were managed by AmBank without his knowledge and used to divert funds from SRC International Sdn Bhd.

However, Najib lost his appeal in the Court of Appeal in January this year as the court was of the view that Najib was seeking to proceed with his civil suit to undermine the criminal proceedings and findings by the High Court and Court of Appeal in the SRC International criminal case.

Earlier, Uma Devi testified Najib received RM1.25 million in interest payments that were credited to his personal savings account ending with number 694 in 2011 alone.

Referring to Najib's bank statement during examination-in-chief by deputy public prosecutor Najwa Bistamam, Uma Devi said the payments were received in 11 tranches throughout the year to the '694' account, between February to December 2011.

"I confirm that there were several entries involving interest payments for the year 2011 and the amount received varied according to the current balance of the account each month.

"This was based on the code 202000 written in the status of each interest entry transaction," she said, adding that the '694' account was opened on Jan 13, 2011, and closed on Aug 30, 2013.

Najib, 69, is facing four charges of using his position to obtain bribes totalling RM2.3 billion from 1MDB funds and 21 charges of money laundering involving the same amount.

The trial before judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah continues tomorrow.

-- BERNAMA