The former Prime Minister said Jho Low had won over his confidence and trust by coming across as a person who could deliver, especially when it came to dealing with the Saudis.
However, he said it was Jho Low who eventually ended up benefitting tremendously by making a lot of money from the scam which he orchestrated.
“The RM42 million which ended in my account was miniscule compared to what he was benefitting,” he said when asked to explain why anyone would bank in millions into his bank accounts.
Najib is accused of abusing RM42 million of SRC International Bhd funds.
SRC International is a former 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) linked company which was later placed under the Ministry of Finance Incorporated (MOF Inc).
The 66-year old, who is also former Finance Minister, said he never questioned the origins of funds which flowed into his accounts because he always thought they were donations from Saudi royalty.
Asked why Jho Low would want to keep pumping in money into his accounts whenever funds were low or drying up, Najib said he believed this was done to maintain his confidence.
“I think he did not want me to lose confidence in him. He wanted to continue to bait me into believing that the Arab donations would keep coming.
“He may have thought that I would discover something was not right if the donations stopped suddenly. This would not have benefitted him further,” he said.
Asked by lead defence counsel Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah what he meant by Jho Low wanting to bait him, Najib said RM42 million was just a small amount for the Penang-born businessman.
He said Jho Low would have had no problems parting with the money as his eyes were on bigger things.
Earlier, Najib said he accepted donations from Saudi royalty because he did not want to rely on corporate donations to fund Umno and Barisan Nasional (BN) component parties’ election machineries.
“I did not want any IOU (a signed document acknowledging a debt) type of relationship with the corporate sector. I did not want the sense of owing gratitude to anyone,” he said.
It was reported that Najib received a donation of US$800 million, allegedly from late Saudi ruler King Abdullah Abdul Aziz Al-Saud in early 2013.
However, he was also reported to have returned an unused amount of US$620 million the same year.
Asked why he had returned the money, Najib said the general election had been completed by that time.
“I was not comfortable with such a large sum lying in my accounts.
“The issue of confidentiality was also of concern… There were a lot of sensitivities involved,” he said.
Najib completed his testimony today and his lawyers will be calling a new witness to testify this afternoon.