Najib’s ‘Arab donor’ defence a sham, prosecution tells court in 1MDB trial
KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 28 — Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s defence that the billions of ringgit transferred into his personal bank accounts were from an Arab royal is a “sham”, the prosecution said today.
At the start of the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) trial over the alleged theft of RM2.3 billion in funds, Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram told the High Court that the tale was fabricated by Najib and fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho and false documents made to “cover his tracks”.
“After the 1MDB scandal broke in early July 2015, the accused and his mirror image Jho Low took steps to cover his tracks.
“Sham documents were produced to pretend a donation from an Arab prince. Among these were letters and four cheques each of a sum of US$25 million purportedly written out by a person said to be an Arab donor,” the retired judge who returned to private practice told the court.
The sum is today estimated at RM1.05 billion.
“But these cheques were never meant to be encashed and were never cashed,” Sri Ram added.
Sri Ram added that the prosecution will produce evidence to show that Najib had taken “active steps to evade justice.''
“He interfered with the course of investigations of this case which has come to be known as the 1MDB scandal. He took active steps to effect a cover-up of this criminal act,’’ he said.
Earlier today Sri Ram had also called fugitive financier Low Taek Jho as his “mirror image” and claimed that both had acted in tandem with one another.
In April this year, The High Court presiding the SRC International case also involving Najib had heard from a witness that a total of RM1.9 billion was transferred to his personal account from 2011 to 2013.
It was said that part of the money was a donation from “Prince Faisal Al Turki” and the Finance Ministry of Saudi Arabia.
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