KUALA LUMPUR: A bank manager today testified how various transactions and transfer of funds from one account to another connected to SRC International Sdn Bhd and Datuk Seri Najib Razak had been carried out based on specific instructions.
Ambank Jalan Raja Chulan branch manager R. Uma Devi revealed that the bank received instructions from among others Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil and Najib himself.
She testified on numerous transactions which had taken place in 2014 and 2015 including an instruction for Nik Faisal telling Ambank to pay RM449,586.95 for two credit cards, a Visa Platinum credit card and RM2,333,147.21 to a MasterCard Platinum credit card in August 2014.
However, it has yet to be revealed whom the credit cards belong to
She said Nik Faisal had in a letter dated Aug 11, 2014, instructed Ambank to transfer RM3,282,734.16 from an Ambank Private Banking account number 2112022011880 belonging to Najib for the payment of the credit cards.
Uma who was witness number 21 called by the prosecution, said Najib had opened and closed five accounts with the bank between January 2011 and March 2015.
She said four were current accounts and one was a savings account.
Meanwhile, her lengthy testimony on various instructions to open and close bank accounts and other banking-related matters caused the trial to drag on way past 5pm.
This led to Najib’s lead counsel Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah to seek the judge’s indulgence for a short break at about 4pm.
“I don’t know about the others but I am tired and bored.
“Can we have a short break please,” he pleaded as Uma was going on and on about various instructions her bank had received from individuals related to accounts connected to Najib.
Uma had been reading a prepared statement about how Najib had open and closed various account in the branch at Jalan Raja Chulan, apart from listing out each and every account number and the amount of money which had been transacted through cheques.
Her monotonous testimony had dragged on from before the lunch break and resumed at 2.30pm.
She read out each and every detail of how millions of ringgit were transferred from one account to another until Shafee stood up at 4pm to seek a short break.
High Court judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali granted a 10-minute break and the hearing continued after that but after that Shafee stood up again and pleaded for the case to be adjourned.
“Some of us need to see the daylight,” he said, eliciting all round sighs of relief.
“Moreover, the witness, too, may be tired,” he said.
However, Attorney-General Tommy Thomas argued that the witness should be allowed to continue as the short break earlier had gone on for almost 20 minutes.
“Justice must go on. The witness is still there,” he said.
Shafee replied that it would be up to the witness if she wanted to continue.
“However, I would like to state here that some of us especially those over 55 need to exercise.
“If he (Tommy Thomas) does not exercise, that’s up to him,” he said.
Nazlan than ordered Uma to continue with her testimony until 5.30pm when the banker said she had no problem carrying on.