PUTRAJAYA: Lead prosecutor Datuk V Sithambaram today tore into former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s story about receiving Arab donations and later sending the money back to the Saudi Royalty, which he said actually ended up in a Low Taek Jho @ Jho Low-linked company.
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He said Najib’s story was nothing but a cover up, noting that it was actually to hide how SRC International, the 1Malaysia Development Berhad linked company’s money ended up in his account.
The Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) said Najib’s claim that the Saudi Royalty had banked the money into his personal bank accounts but he later decided to send it back was nothing short of a joke.
“He claims the Saudi King gave him the donation and it was banked into his personal bank accounts.
“However, he later decided to send it back because it would blow up into a political issue.
“This is a joke…it appears the money was put into secret bank accounts,” he said.
Sithambaram also ripped Najib’s explanation about allegedly returning the money to Saudi royalty.
He said doing so would have been nothing short of an insult to the Saudis.
Najib, he pointed out, had all this while claimed the Saudi King had given him billions in donation as a recognition of his achievements in turning Malaysia into a progressive Muslim nation.
“My question is why then return the money…why fear anyone finding out that it was in his accounts.
“He was not given the money because he is Datuk Seri Najib Razak…he was given the money because he was the prime minister of Malaysia.
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“He could have been open and transparent about it…tell everyone the source of the funds. Instead, he did not tell anyone..the Cabinet did not know anything about it..no one knew,” he said, adding Najib had actually sent the money out to avoid queries on why he had such large sums of money and also to escape scrutiny as to the source of the funds.
Sithambaram said Najib later claimed that he returned the money to the Arabs, but it was actually sent to a company called Tanore Finance Corporation.
He added that there had never been any confirmation through official channels about the Arab donations, as would normally occur between leaders of sovereign nations when such a large amount of donation is given.
“It is rather odd for a donation to be returned to the sender without any explanation or a thank you letter.
“This act itself shows that the Arab funds were never a donation to start with. It looks more like a scam,” he said.
Sithambaram said Najib’s explanation about receiving donations from the Saudis was also too incredible to believe as they seemed to know when to bank in money whenever his accounts were low in funds.
He said the required funds would magically appear in Najib’s accounts at the exact moment it was needed, usually when the account was very low or overdrawn.
“The contributor of the fund would certainly want the appellant as the Prime Minister of Malaysia to know of his contribution.
“Yet, there is no contact between the donor and the appellant before the arrival of the funds,” he added.
Sithambaram said this in his submissions in Najib’s appeal against his sentence and conviction over seven charges of abuse of power, criminal breach of trust and money laundering involving RM42 million of SRC funds.-NST