KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 10 — Lawyers defending former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak sought to discredit Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) analyst Adam Ariff Mohd Roslan court docket testimony on the circulation of money in 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).
Najib’s lead defence lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah informed the High Court that Adam Ariff will not be an skilled witness, and the latter’s testimony is subsequently not related.
Adam Ariff was known as to the stand because the forty seventh prosecution witness in Najib’s trial over the misappropriation of RM2.28 billion of 1MDB funds that have been alleged to have entered the previous prime minister’s non-public AmIslamic financial institution accounts.
After Adam Ariff confirmed he isn’t showing as an skilled witness in Najib’s trial however is testifying as an analyst within the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s (MACC) 1MDB activity drive, Shafee mentioned the prosecution witness had solely given his opinion in court docket to date.
“Yang Ariff, I’m questioning within the gentle of the witness’s admission that he’s not an skilled witness, whether or not that is an applicable time to submit that what he has testified will not be related, as a result of he has expressed opinion in a report. He’s now saying he solely analysed and that evaluation could be undertaken by anybody with a substantial amount of persistence.
“As Yang Arif is conscious, Section 45, solely skilled witnesses can categorical opinions,” Shafee mentioned, referring to Section 45 of the Evidence Act 1950.
Shafee instructed time can be saved if the court docket have been to search out that Adam Ariff will not be eligible to testify on the 1MDB money trail because the investigating officer might have carried out it.
Under Section 45, when the court docket has to type an opinion on international regulation, science, artwork or id or genuineness of handwriting or finger impressions, the opinions by specialists – specifically expert in such issues – are related details.
Trial choose Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah replied that such arguments on the Evidence Act could be offered at a later stage of the trial – on the finish of the prosecution’s case when submissions are made, and that Shafee might select to not undergo the money trail if he considered Adam Ariff’s testimony to be not related.
Deputy public prosecutor Ahmad Akram Gharib identified that Adam Ariff is a witness of reality and that failure to cross-examine him would quantity to acceptance of the details said by him.
Shafee then determined to proceed cross-examining Adam Ariff.
Bank Negara Malaysia Analyst Adam Ariff Mohd Roslan at Kuala Lumpur Court Complex October 10, 2023. — Picture by Sayuti Zainudin
Under questioning from Shafee earlier, Adam Ariff mentioned he was seconded to the MACC in June 2018 to help it in its investigations, and that he had accomplished 4 illustrations or charts on the 1MDB money flows in January 2020.
He added that he had accomplished the money trail report on 1MDB in June 2022.
He mentioned his evaluation was based mostly on banking paperwork supplied to him by the MACC.
Asked by Shafee if different people would additionally be capable of produce or perceive the identical money trail on 1MDB if supplied with the identical banking paperwork, Adam Ariff mentioned this is able to be doable for somebody who has finance background data or has carried out some monetary transaction evaluation.
“First, I feel simply fundamental banking data, you probably have a financial institution assertion, it is possible for you to to see the patterns within the financial institution assertion, deductions and addition.
“Secondly, you probably have some expertise in analysing monetary transactions like I do, as a part of being within the FIU, in order that’s about it, I really feel,” he mentioned, referring to the Financial Intelligence Unit, which is an impartial division beneath Bank Negara and which he works at.
Adam Ariff agreed that it could be labourious however not “rocket science” to undergo the paperwork to hint the funds in Najib’s accounts backwards to 1MDB and to verify MACC’s findings on the money flows.
He additionally agreed that investigating officers within the MACC would be capable of do the identical money trail, when requested.
Adam Ariff graduated in 2017 with a bachelor’s diploma in finance from Universiti Teknologi MARA the place he obtained the Vice Chancellor’s Gold Medal Award for excellence in teachers and co-curricular actions, and in 2017 began his BNM profession as an intern on the financial institution’s Financial Intelligence and Enforcement Department (FIED) and started work there as an affiliate analyst the identical 12 months.
He was in June 2018 seconded to the 1MDB activity drive on the MACC as an analyst and was upgraded in 2019 to be an analyst at BNM and promoted to a managerial function in 2022.
Adam Ariff confirmed he was not given the unique copies however was analysing the 1MDB money trail to Najib’s accounts based mostly on photocopied copies of the paperwork, he mentioned he took it in good religion that the paperwork have been real and never tampered with.
He added that he had no purpose to imagine the paperwork weren’t real and he felt there was no want for the unique copies to be proven to him for his evaluation on the 1MDB money trail.
Shafee says Najib believed he was getting Saudi donation
At one level, Adam Ariff disagreed with Shafee’s suggestion that he had fashioned an “opinion” concerning the circulation of 1MDB funds to Good Star Limited (now identified to be owned by Malaysian fugitive Low Taek Jho and an entity the place money flowed by way of earlier than it was mentioned to have ultimately reached Najib’s account), saying that it was a “reality” that financial institution statements had proven the funds have been associated to 1MDB and Good Star based mostly on the quantity and dates of the transactions.
Adam Ariff’s 76-page money trail report confirmed that RM2.28 billion of money belonging to 1MDB and its associated firms had flowed to Najib’s two AmIslamic financial institution accounts.
But Shafee this morning sought to say Najib’s defence over the money circulation in Phase One of the alleged 1MDB scheme, the place US$24.5 million flowed from Good Star to the Riyad Bank account of a “Prince Faisal” and the place US$20 million then flowed from the Riyad Bank account to Najib’s AmIslamic account which had the code title “AmPrivateBanking-MR”.
“Datuk Seri Najib’s defence is easy, he was of the total perception, no doubt, money that got here from the Riyad Bank was in truth donation from the late King Abdullah of Saudi, okay, you get that? So the quantity of money that got here in will not be the subject material, what’s related is did Datuk Seri Najib know whether or not this money originated from 1MDB.
“You see the excellence now? If he knew it was from 1MDB, in fact he’s responsible, but when he doesn’t know and actually thought the money got here from King Abdullah, then it’s a totally different story altogether. You took two years to make up your thoughts about this transaction and different transactions. Have you seen from Datuk Seri Najib’s perspective, what would he have had when he obtained these monies in his account in AmIslamic?” Shafee requested.
But Adam Ariff mentioned this was not required because it was exterior of his scope of labor.
“No, that was not wanted as a result of my goal and scope is to analyse the motion of funds, when it comes to the aim, it isn’t a priority to me,” the prosecution witness replied.
On the primary day of trial, the prosecution had mentioned it could present that 1MDB funds had been transferred in a number of transactions to Najib’s accounts, particularly US$20 million equal to RM60,629,839.43 or over RM60 million from the primary section, US$30 million equal to RM90,899,927.28 or over RM90 million (second section), US$681 million equal to RM2,081,476,926 or over RM2 billion (third section), and transactions in British pound that have been equal to RM4,093,500 and RM45,837,485.70 or a mixed whole of RM49,930,985.70 million or over RM49 million (fourth section).
Adam Ariff’s money trail report outlined the identical 4 phases talked about by the prosecution to indicate how money had flowed from 1MDB and its associated firms to Najib’s two AmIslamic accounts.
