'SRC just wants its money back,' High Court hears in civil suit against Najib

Summary

• SRC and Gandingan Mentari’s civil suit filed against Najib is meant to recover RM42 million funds belonging to the people, the court hears.

• The plaintiffs’ first witness in the suit is YR1M’s former CEO Ung Su Ling, who says Najib’s former aide, Azlin, had told her the funds were for CSR programmes.

The sole intent behind SRC International Sdn Bhd’s and Gandingan Mentari Sdn Bhd’s civil suit against Najib Abdul Razak is to recover the RM42 million funds belonging to the rakyat, the High Court heard today.

The company’s lawyer, Kwan Will Sen, in his opening statement, said that their case will centre on betrayal of public trust, national purpose and the most vulnerable citizens.

“The facts are stark: The RM42 million of public money, funds meant to secure Malaysia’s energy future and intended for the benefit of civil service pensioners, ended up in the personal bank accounts of our former prime minister, the defendants.

“The evidence tells a simple yet damning story: public power was abused and misused,” he said.

The trial, commencing today before judge Raja Ahmad Mohzanuddin Shah Raja Mohzan, then began with Yayasan Rakyat 1Malaysia (YR1M) former chief executive officer Ung Su Ling testifying as the plaintiffs’ first witness.

Acting on instructions

Ung told the court that she had only acted upon instructions by Najib’s former private secretary Azlin Alias, who told her to direct Ihsan Perdana Sdn Bhd (IPSB) CEO and director Shamsul Anwar Sulaiman to transfer the funds into Najib’s Ambank accounts.

She said the instructions were conveyed to her when she met with Azlin in September 2014.

“He informed me that in the coming months, funds would be transferred into a bank account maintained by IPSB.

“Azlin informed me that these funds were for corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes (and) instructed me to direct Shamsul as to where these funds were to be transferred.

“He had omitted details of the amount that would be transferred to IPSB bank accounts, as well as the date of the transfer and the source of the funds for the transfer,” she said.

No reason to doubt

The former CEO, whose appointment was approved by Najib, said that she also did not think to enquire further at the material time, given that Azlin said it was for CSR purposes and that she had no reason to doubt him.

The transfer occurred, as instructed by Azlin to her, in December the same year, involving RM27 million and RM5 million funds, and again in February 2015 involving RM10 million funds, totalling RM42 million of funds landed into two of Najib’s accounts.

“At the material time, I was not aware of the source of these funds, nor was I informed of the same by Azlin (but) I can attest that these funds did not originate from nor belong to YR1M.

“However, subsequent media reports and the High Court’s decision (in Najib’s SRC International convictions), I understand that these funds, which were transferred to IPSB, originated from SRC.”

She further said that she had only learnt about Najib’s personal bank accounts, where the funds were eventually transferred to, from media reports.

Ung had previously testified as the 49th prosecution witness in Najib’s SRC International criminal case, which the High Court found him guilty of criminal breach of trust, abuse of power and money laundering involving the company’s RM42 million funds.

SRC International and its wholly owned subsidiary, Gandingan Mentari, filed the suit against Najib in 2021, where they claimed Najib had committed a breach of trust and misused his power, benefited personally from SRC International funds and misappropriated the funds.

The trial will continue before Raja Mohzanuddin on Sept 8.

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