Kuala Lumpur: Former Bank Negara Malaysia governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz told the High Court in Najib Razak’s 1MDB trial today her husband was the person who reported a “suspicious” transaction involving his company’s bank account to a Singapore bank.
She said Tawfiq Ayman owned an asset management company in Singapore, and received monies from various investors for investment purposes.
According to Zeti, Tawfiq became aware from “open source information” that certain funds which had entered his company’s account could have originated from a “dubious” source.
“Therefore, he reported it in writing to the financial institution and requested them to return (the funds) to the investor. And if the bank fails to do so, (he told them to) forward (the funds) to the jurisdiction (from where they originated).
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Previously, it was reported that RM64.4 million linked to 1MDB had been repatriated from Singapore. The money was allegedly kept in the bank account of Tawfiq’s company, Cutting Edge Industries Ltd.
The police were also reported to have launched an investigation into Tawfiq over the sum of money.
Asked by Shafee if she was able to produce Tawfiq’s letter to the Singaporean bank over the suspicious transactions, Zeti said the police were still investigating the case against Tawfiq, and, therefore, she was not at liberty to comment.
Asked if it was her husband who told her about the funds, Zeti answered in the affirmative.
“It is hearsay until he (Tawfiq) is called,” Shafee retorted.
Zeti also told the court she had not seen two purported statutory declarations signed by Tawfiq and her son relinquishing their rights to the RM64.4 million sum.
“I cannot comment,” she said, insisting that no one in her family took a single sen from 1MDB.
Asked whether she spoke to Tawfiq and her sons about the statutory declarations on them allegedly receiving 1MDB funds, she said: “The contents of the SDs, which I am only seeing today, did not say they accepted the money. It is about returning money to investors.”
She said no action was taken by the Singaporean government against Tawfiq or her children over the RM64.4 million in question.
Najib is standing trial on 25 charges for abuse of power and money laundering involving 1MDB funds amounting to RM2.28 billion deposited into his AmBank accounts between February 2011 and December 2014.
The hearing before Justice Collin Lawrence Sequerah continues.
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