KUALA LUMPUR: Ihsan Perdana Sdn Bhd (IPSB) managing director Datuk Dr Shamsul Anwar Sulaiman told the High Court here today that he would have called and clarified with Datuk Seri Najib Razak if he knew that RM42 million had been transferred into two personal accounts belonging to the former prime minister.
Dr Shamsul Anwar, 58, said this when cross-examined by lawyer Harvinderjit Singh during the 19th day trial of Najib, who is facing three counts of criminal breach of trust, one count of abusing his powers and three counts of money laundering involving SRC International funds totalling RM42 million.
Harvinderjit: You said you had a direct line of communication to Najib at that time which allowed you to call him directly about any issues?
Dr Shamsul Anwar: Yes.
Harvinderjit: If you knew that the two accounts (AmIslamic 880 and 906) belong to Najib and you have direct access to him, you would have called him?
Dr Shamsul Anwar: Yes, I will call him and ask him to clarify this matter if I had known (the two accounts belong to Najib).
During the last proceedings, Dr Shamsul Anwar, when reading out his witness statement, said IPSB transferred RM42 million into two personal accounts of Najib without knowing that the accounts belong to him.
The 37th prosecution witness said Najib had never contacted him regarding the payment of RM27 million and RM5 million on Dec 26, 2014 and RM10 million on Feb 9, 2015.
Dr Shamsul Anwar also confirmed that RM143 million which was deposited into IPSB account had come from the 1MDB subsidiary.
He said he got to know the matter after SRC International’s then director Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil confronted him through a phone call regarding the origin of the funds.
Earlier, judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali advised Harvinderjit to be more precise in his line of questioning when cross-examining the witness.
The matter was raised after Deputy Public Prosecutor Datuk V. Sithambaram objected to how Harvinderjit conducted the cross-examination, saying that he had gone into too much details regarding issues which were irrelevant to the charges faced by Najib.
“This has been going on for some time, and we feel that this has nothing to do with charges against the accused.
“I feel that they are totally remote from the charges. Perhaps My Lord can hear from my learned friend here (Harvinderjit) and make a ruling,” Sithambaram said.
At this point, Harvinderjit was questioning Dr Shamsul Anwar’s witness statement, which detailed the nature of IPSB’s works and projects, and its financial statements.
The lawyer then told the court that he was deliberating on matters that the witness had testified on.
“The provision of financial statements was already outlined in witness statement. I am deliberating on that,” Harvinderjit said.
— BERNAMA
