KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s lawyer spent the entire morning today trying to establish how the board of directors of SRC International Sdn Bhd had been manipulated by its former CEO.
The defence pressed the prosecution witness on all the transgressions committed by SRC International CEO Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil, who has since been on the run in another country, in the management of the company.
Najib’s counsel Harvinderjit Singh also named another board member – Datuk Suboh Mohd Yasin, as being ‘less than candid’ with the board on what happened in the company then.
Also implicated were SRC International director Jerome Lee, and 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) top management like its finance director Terrance Geh and executive director Casey Tang.
Harvinderjit asked former SRC International chairman Tan Sri Ismee Ismail if he knew of these people were close associates of fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho or Jho Low.
Ismee replied that he only got to know about this after the 1MDB scandal broke.
This is the sixth day that Ismee, who is the 39th prosecution witness, was put on the stand to be cross examined by the defence.
Earlier, he agreed with Harvinderjit that Nik Faisal had lied about several things to the SRC International board of directors.
He said this included how the RM2 billion loan which the company secured from the Pensioner’s Retirement fund (KWAP) came about.
Among other things he said the board was not informed about the role played by Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop, who was then minister in the Prime Minister’s department, in securing the government guarantee for the loan.
The loan was approved in March 2012 and the money banked into SRC International account on March 28, 2012, before it was transferred out two days later.
Harvinderjit then asserted if Nik Faisal had lied about such things he could very well have lied about everything else.
“Nik Faisal is saying one thing to the board and another thing to the Ministry of Finance and the government,” he said.
Ismee acknowledged that this could very well had been the case.
The defence had previously argued that Najib was a victim of manipulation by certain people, who had gained tremendously from him.
His lawyers had on the onset of the trial said ‘a lot of people’ will be exposed in the course of the hearing.
“This case is very interesting. It is going to expose a lot of people.
“And this is going to be almost like a movie, because the person you suspected the most turns out, I think in the end, to be a victim,” Najib’s lead counsel Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah was quoted as saying previously.
Najib, 66, is facing seven charges 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.
The Pekan MP was charged with committing the offences between Aug 17, 2011 and Feb 10. 2015.
The hearing continues.