KUALA LUMPUR: A key witness today revealed how Ihsan Perdana Sdn Bhd (IPSB), the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) company set up for social welfare work, ended up transferring RM42 million into Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s personal account.
IPSB managing director Datuk Dr Shamsul Anwar Sulaiman said he would not have transferred the money if he had known it was the former prime minister’s personal account as the money was meant for corporate social responsibility (CSR) related work.
He also revealed that IPSB was set up in 2011 and given an annual allocation of RM40 million to undertake CSR work.
He said RM20 million of this was contributed by 1MDB and another RM20 million was from Yayasan Rakyat 1 Malaysia (YR1M).
He said the money was supposed to be used for CSR related work in areas won by Umno and Barisan Nasional (BN) component parties.
“The CSR programmes were planned by IPSB, but the target groups were chosen by BN members of parliament or Umno division chiefs.
“IPSB will then prepare annual reports on what was carried out,” he said.
He revealed that the CSR programmes that had been carried out included sending imam and village chiefs to perform the Haj, repairing dilapidated houses, repairing boats and fishing nets, and providing special aid to Orang Asli villages.
Shamsul, a medical doctor who has been actively involved in CSR work since coming back from Belgium after obtaining his degree, said he was contacted by Najib to join 1MDB as an executive director somewhere between October 2010 and July 2011.
He said 1MDB CEO Datuk Shahrul Azral subsequently told him to form a company to carry out CSR work, after explaining that 1MDB could not do so directly as it would be tantamount to conflict of interest.
Shamsul said he managed to locate a shell company called Gem Horizon Sdn Bhd before renaming it IPSB.
“I set up IPSB with RM2 and got Datuk Abdul Aziz Ismail to become a partner.
“Both of us had one share of RM1 each in the company” he said, adding that IPSB had 22 employees.
He said 1MDB and YR1M were the sole source of funding for IPSB, but IPSB eventually became a CSR partner with SRC International Sdn Bhd in 2014.
He said RM40 million was eventually transferred into IPSB’s account on Dec 24, 2014, RM5 million on Feb 5, 2015, and another RM5 million on Feb 6, 2015.
Shamsul said he did not know who had transferred the money into IPSB’s account.
“However, before the RM40 million was credited into our account, Dennis See Thuan Buan, who is the director of projects in YR1M, came to see me and said the IPSB account would be used as a transit for a certain amount of money.
“I asked him for some details, but he did not give me any explanation,” he said.
Shamsul said the money that was banked into IPSB account was eventually transferred into AmPrivate Banking account number 211202201880 and 2112022011906, but he did not know who was the account holder.
He confirmed that the money was never meant for any CSR programme and he would never have transferred the money if he had known that the accounts belonged to Najib.
“I also confirm that Najib never contacted me about the money after the cash was transferred into the accounts,” he said.
Najib, 66, is facing seven counts of criminal breach of trust, abuse of power and money-laundering involving RM42 million of SRC International funds.
He faces 20 years jail and fine for the offences.