KUALA LUMPUR: A feisty witness testifying in Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s trial today held his own against a barrage of questions posed by the former prime minister’s lawyer over a RM4 billion loan obtained by SRC International Sdn Bhd.
At one point, Amirul Imran Ahmad – who was the former assistant vice-president of Retirement Fund Incorporated (KWAP), which loaned SRC the money, also snapped at the lawyer when he was interrupted while trying to complete his answer.
“You asked me a question, but you did not let me finish. Now let me answer,” he said when Harvinderjit Singh cut him off as he was in the midst of completing his sentence.
Amirul has emerged as one of the prime prosecution witnesses in the trial after he testified before this on how KWAP had been pressured to give the money to the scandal hit 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) linked company in 2011 and 2012.
Today, Amirul, who was candid in his testimony, repeatedly maintained that SRC’s bid to get the money from KWAP would have been rejected if the pensioners fund’s investment panel had a choice.
He admitted that this was just his personal view as he was not on the panel and had also never attended any of their meetings on the loan application.
However, he revealed how KWAP had intentionally proposed a high interest rate to discourage SRC from asking for the money, but this did not stop the company from pursuing the loan.
(The witness yesterday testified that KWAP charged SRC an annual interest of 4.65 per cent for the first three years. The interest payment by SRC every six months was about RM50.8 million.)
Amirul was attached to the fixed income department of KWAP when SRC set its sight on getting money from the fund’s coffers.
The trial, which entered its 14th day today, started with Amirul being cross examined by Harvinderjit.
The 39-year-old East London University graduate explained that he joined KWAP in 2011, but left after just three-and-a-half years in 2014.
He testified that SRC had initially applied for a RM3.95 billion loan in 2011 and he had been asked to prepare an investment paper for the KWAP investment panel to review.
“I rejected the amount which was being sought by the company and recommended that the loan should be capped at RM1 billion after doing a credit worthiness analysis,” he said, adding the reduced amount proposed was also to mitigate the repayment risk.
However, he said, KWAP still ended up approving RM2 billion before the pensioners board had to fork out another RM2 billion the following year when SRC sought the additional amount through a letter which was signed off by Najib.
Harvinderjit: You proposed that the loan be limited to RM1 billion. However, the investment panel did not approve it straight away, correct?
Amirul: We had no choice so we set it at RM1 billion. They (investment panel) would have rejected it if they had a choice. In the end, it was deferred.
Harvinderjit: You cannot speak on their behalf. This is just your opinion, correct?
Amirul: Yes
In the midst of the cross examination, Amirul snapped at the lawyer when he was cut off midway while trying to respond to a question.
This happened when Amirul said he had always maintained that the loan should be capped at RM1 billion, but Harvinderjit interrupted and said he was just “asking a simple question on whether the amount was just a recommendation”.
To another question, Amirul said he had also asked for additional terms for a government guarantee to be included before the loan was approved,
Amirul said he had proposed two options to further safeguard KWAP’s position in case SRC defaulted.
The first option was to grant the RM2 billion loan to SRC with a government guarantee, with the funds disbursed to 1MDB, while the second option was to disburse the money to the government directly.
Under the second option, the government was to be named as the borrower instead of SRC.
He said the government guarantee was the only selling point for SRC’s loan application as all its presentations to secure the money only looked good on a superficial basis.
Amirul said SRC International chief executive officer Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil and 1MDB deputy chief financial officer Terence Geh had met him and other KWAP top officers to talk about the company’s grandiose investment plans several times, but could not justify the financing they wanted.
Harvinderjit: You met Nik Faisal and Terence Geh and they talked about SRC’s plans. Do you agree it all sounds very impressive?
Amirul: Sounds la...yes.
Harvinderjit: Do you agree there was an air of confidence when they talked about what SRC was going to embark on?
Amirul: No, they always tried not to talk directly about it.
Harvinderjit: Do you agree that on paper it all looks very impressive?
Amirul: There was nothing of merit. Only superficially they looked impressive.
Harvinderjit: You mean the answers they gave were all wishy washy?
Amirul: They were side tracking.
Harvinderjit: How many meetings did you have with them?
Amirul: At least four or five.
However, despite all the meetings, Amirul said the duo still failed to submit the necessary documentation for the loan application.
Earlier, he was forced to identify Nik Faisal from a newspaper clipping as the latter has gone missing since the 1MDB scandal broke.
Najib is facing three counts of criminal breach of trust (CBT) and one count of abuse of power over funds amounting to RM42 million linked to SRC International.
He is also facing three money laundering charges over the same fund.
He faces up to 20 years jail and a fine for the offences.
The trial continues.