KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court here was today told that SRC International Sdn Bhd’s applied for a RM3.95 billion loan from the Retirement Fund (KWAP) when the qualifying limit was only can only RM1 billion.
KWAP’s former assistant vice president (Fixed Income Department) Amirul Imran Ahmat, 39, said this when cross-examined by Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak’s lawyer Harvinderjit Singh on the 14th day of the trial of the former prime minister who is facing three counts of Criminal Breach of Trust (CBT), one count of abusing his powers and three counts of money laundering involving SRC International funds totalling RM42 million.
Amirul Imran said the loan qualification limit was based on KWAP’s Investment Panel Paper which was provided for the financing process of SRC.
He said therefore he had suggested to KWAP that the SRC loan qualification limit was only RM1 billion.
Harvinderjit then suggested to Amirul that he changed his position regarding the loan amount, many years after KWAP had extended the financing to SRC.
However, the witness insisted that he had always maintained his position as per the investment paper, and recommended capping the loan to SRC at RM1 billion.
Amirul Imran also said that KWAP’s investment panel would have rejected the loan to SRC if they could.
At this juncture, Harvinderjit said the witness was not part of the investment panel, and thus he cannot speak for it.
The witness agreed that it was his personal opinion that the investment panel had no choice but to approve the loan to SRC.
Amirul Imran said the investment panel had no choice but to defer from his investment paper that proposed to limit KWAP’s loan exposure to SRC to RM1 billion.
When asked whether he had given a statement to the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC), Amirul Imran said he went to MACC in 2018 for his statement to be recorded.
Harvinderjit: How many times did you go to the MACC?
Amirul Imran: Countless times, the first time was in 2015, the last time was a couple of months back.
The hearing before High Court Judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali continues.
— BERNAMA
