SRC trial: Najib’s platinum credit cards used for RM593,000 spend at Chanel Honolulu, Bangkok’s Shangri-La hotel

KUALA LUMPUR, July 15 — Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s two credit cards of platinum status were previously used to pay for over RM593,000 at luxury fashion brand Chanel’s Honolulu outlet and for the Shangri-La Hotel in Bangkok, the High Court heard today

AmBank’s senior vice-president Yeoh Eng Leong confirmed today that Najib had a Visa Platinum credit card and Mastercard Platinum credit card issued under his name at the bank.

Referring to a credit card statement dated January 8, 2015, Yeoh confirmed the two transactions in 2014 and 2015.

“For Ambank Visa Platinum card, usage on December 22, 2014 at Chanel, Honolulu, US for US$130,625, which is equivalent to RM466,330.11,” he said, referring to the converted figure based on currency exchange rates then.

“For Mastercard, transaction on January 4, 2015 at Shangri-la Hotel, Bangkok for RM127,017.46,” added Yeoh, who is senior president of credit card authorisation and fraud management at Ambank.

These two figures come up to RM593,347.57, which were paid in full the following month.

Yeoh said that payments were made from Ambank accounts both on February 2, 2015 for RM466,330.11 for the Visa Platinum card and for RM127,017.46 for the Mastercard Platinum card.

The Ambank account 2112022011880 cited as having paid off the outstanding amounts is an account opened under Najib’s name.

During Yeoh’s testimony, deputy public prosecutor Budiman Lutfi Mohamed asked: “On usage of these cards, do you know if there were any complaints of unlawful usage by cardholder Datuk Seri Najib?”

Yeoh then replied: “So far, based on our records, we don’t have any complaints or disputes.”

Based on the two credit cards’ statements, Yeoh told Budiman that the combined spending limit for the two cards was RM3 million.

Earlier, he also told Budiman that the Visa card was used for two transactions and the Mastercard was used for eight transactions, all on August 8, 2014 at Swiss luxury jeweller De Grisogono’s outlet in Italy.

The total amount tallied by Malay Mail for the 10 transactions in August 2014 is €763,500, which is equivalent to over RM3.3 million or RM3,364,670.65.

Yeoh confirmed payments of RM449,586.95 and RM2,833,147.21 were paid for the Mastercard and Visa card on August 13, 2014, which matches a previous prosecution witness’s testimony --- AmBank Jalan Raja Chulan’s branch manager R. Uma Devi --- of a total RM3,282,734.16 being paid out from Najib’s AmBank account 2112022011880 to two credit card accounts.

Yeoh had previously printed out credit card statements for the two credit cards from March 2011 to April 2015 at the request of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).

Later during cross-examination by Najib’s lawyer Harvinderjit Singh, Yeoh confirmed that the address that the credit card statements had been addressed to had changed after March 2012.

Yeoh also confirmed that the April 2015 statement showed that an account under the name of “Nik Faisal Ariff Kam” had made payments for the two credit cards.

Yeoh, 58, is the prosecution’s 47th witness in Najib’s ongoing trial on alleged abuse of position, money-laundering and criminal breach of trust over RM42 million of funds from SRC International Sdn Bhd, a former subsidiary of 1Malaysia Development Berhad.

At the start of the trial, Attorney General Tommy Thomas had, among other things, said that evidence would show that Najib’s credit card US$130,625 was charged for expenses made at exclusive fashion store Chanel in Honolulu in the US..

The trial before High Court judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali resumes at 2.30pm.

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