LAST week, Datuk Seri Najib Razak trained his sights on former Yayasan Rakyat 1Malaysia (YR1M) CEO Ung Su Ling. The former prime minister accused her of conspiring with fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho to allegedly transfer money from SRC International Sdn Bhd to his bank accounts, without his knowledge, at the material time between December 2014 and February 2015.

Najib even went to the extent of accusing Ung of lying on the witness stand. According to Najib, Ung was using his principal private secretary Datuk Azlin Alias to “break the role played by Jho Low”.

“Throughout this trial, it has been shown that Ung is an associate of Low. She does not have any evidence to show that my principal private secretary Datuk Azlin Alias was involved in all the transactions.

“I believe that Ung has used Azlin’s name to break the role played by Jho Low. Fortunately, as revealed by my lawyers during cross-examination and through the BlackBerry messages retrieved involving (former AmBank client relationship manager) Joanna Yu Ging Ping, Ung received directives from Jho Low,” Najib said in his defence testimony last week.

Ung is the prosecution’s 49th witness. What has she said in her testimony?

She told the court on July 16 that Azlin had instructed her in a WhatsApp message to transfer the funds from Ihsan Perdana Sdn Bhd (IPSB) to two of Najib’s AmBank accounts.

Ung testified that some RM27 million was transferred to Najib’s account ending 880 while RM5 million was transferred into his other account ending 906 on Dec 26, 2014. Furthermore, she said that on Feb 9, 2015, she received instructions from Azlin to transfer an additional RM10 million to the 880 account.

Coincidentally, December 2014 was the month Najib spent RM466,330.11 of the money in his account on a Chanel watch as a birthday present for his wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor. The luxury watch was bought in Honolulu, Hawaii, using his Visa Platinum credit card linked to his AmBank account ending 880.

To recap, IPSB was set up to undertake CSR activities for the benefit of the Muslim community while YR1M was formed to cater for non-Muslims.

Ung, who is a lawyer by her academic credentials, had previously worked at Wynton Private Equity Group Sdn Bhd between 2004 and 2006, an investment firm formerly owned by Low.

Najib had opened two accounts — one current and one savings account — with AmBank in 2011 to purportedly received the Arab donations. He closed the two accounts in 2013 and opened three other accounts. The three accounts were closed in March 2015.

Azlin a man of integrity

Azlin was killed in a helicopter crash with five other people, including former minister Datuk Seri Jamaludin Jarjis, on April 5, 2015.

When his lawyer asked about Azlin, Najib replied that the late principal private secretary was a man of high respect and integrity in his dealings.

“I believe that the actual balance in my accounts was not actually revealed to Azlin. I believe he [Azlin] had been cheated by Jho Low and former SRC International Sdn Bhd [former CEO and managing director] Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil who used their influence with the bank [to] manipulate things for their interests,” Najib said.

Nik Faisal was recommended or introduced to Najib by Azlin. Nik Faisal initially held a position in 1Malaysia Development Bhd, before moving on to SRC. He was entrusted or given the mandate to supervise Najib’s accounts. Both Low and Nik Faisal have left the country.

During his testimony, Najib claimed that apart from Nik Faisal, Azlin was tasked with looking after his bank accounts. And that he usually referred to Azlin on the account balance when he needed to issue cheques or to check the bank statements.

Najib shocked by Shamsul’s revelation

Najib testified that he was not aware that the money in his accounts was money from IPSB, which was supposedly for corporate social responsibility activities.

The former prime minister said he was shocked over newspaper reports that SRC money was channelled into his account through IPSB and that he has no such knowledge of the truth of those transactions.

“I am disappointed upon [learning] this. I asked Shamsul as to why he transferred the money from IPSB and he told me that he was instructed by Ung and Dennis See, who did not reveal the accounts belonged to me. He also said they did not reveal where they got the instructions.

“They only informed Shamsul to make the transfer. Shamsul apologised to me but I cannot say he was totally at fault. He was “disesatkan” (misled) by Ung and See,” Najib said in his testimony.

See, who was YR1M project director, is Ung’s cousin and it was reported that, like Ung, he had worked previously with Jho Low.

Najib also pointed out that one year after he met Ung, she revealed that she did not know the origin of the money that was transferred to his accounts.

“She only said that Azlin had told her that the money was to be transferred to IPSB and she was required to transfer the funds to accounts that had no particular name. She claimed she did not know the origin of the account and did not know the destination of the funds to be transferred.

“Ung claimed that she thought it was for CSR purposes as all her directives concerning CSR expenditure in YR1M came from Azlin, who was one of its trustees. At that time, I did not understand why Azlin directed Ung and I left it at that.

“However, looking at the evidence tendered and, as I said previously, I believe Ung had lied from the start as she was truly under Jho Low’s instruction,” the former premier alleged.

It is worth noting that Shamsul, in his testimony, said that while Najib had looked shocked during his meeting after he was released on remand, the former premier did not instruct him to lodge a report with the police or the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission.

Last week, the former premier was cross-examined by Attorney-General Tan Sri Tommy Thomas for two days and the prosecution will continue to do so on Wednesday.

Last week, in a new twist, Najib filed a commercial suit in the Kuala Lumpur High Court against AmBank Islamic Bhd, AMMB Holdings Bhd and Yu as defendants in which he claimed the bank managed the accounts without his knowledge.