PUTRAJAYA — Former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak was not being wilfully blind on the source of the US$681 million (RM2.081 billion) which previously entered his bank accounts, as he had genuinely believed these were donations to him from Saudi Arabia, his lawyer argued today.
In October last year, 1MDB trial judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah ruled Najib had to defend himself in the trial involving over RM2 billion of 1MDB funds, and said the former prime minister was “wilfully blind” as he did not ask where the money was from when he should have done so.
Responding to the judge’s previous findings, Najib’s lawyer Datuk Tania Scivetti today argued that her client’s “transparent” conduct showed that he was not wilfully blind.
Scivetti listed various reasons, including Najib transparently opening a bank account in AmBank under his own name to receive donations which he said was promised by the then Saudi ruler King Abdullah.
She said Najib had also informed AmBank’s then managing director Cheah Tek Kuang that the account he had opened was to receive donations from Saudi royalty, and that both AmBank and Bank Negara Malaysia did not raise any red flags over the money which came into his account.
“Datuk Seri Najib had clear and objective grounds to believe, and did in fact believe, that the funds were a legitimate donation from His Majesty King Abdullah,” she asserted in the 1MDB trial at the High Court.
Scivetti also cited King Abdullah’s alleged January 11, 2010 promise to provide financial support during a meeting with Najib, as well as four purported donation letters from a Saudi royal named Prince Saud.
Scivetti also said that Najib had seen money flowing into his bank account every time after each Saudi donation letter had been issued, and argued it was “reasonable” for Najib to have the “understanding” that these funds were to honour King Abdullah’s pledge of personal donation to him.
She also cited Najib’s writing of a letter to then Bank Negara Malaysia governor Tan Sri Zeti Akhtar Aziz regarding his planned return of the unused sum of US$620 million out of the US$681 million “donation” to the original source.
“Such conduct is wholly contrary to wilful blindness, it reflects a transparent and genuine belief that the funds were legitimate donations,” she said.
