KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 9 — Datuk Seri Najib Razak cannot plead ignorance to the transactions in his personal bank accounts to avoid criminal liability as it is by law for an account holder to have knowledge of their account’s banking activities, said the Court of Appeal.
“The customer of a bank is required by law to have knowledge of the banking activities in his account,” he said in the ruling. Accordingly, Abdul Karim said Najib’s knowledge of the fund’s movement into his bank accounts and his dishonest intention were borne out by the added evidence of him issuing the instruction letter dated December 24, 2014 to AmIslamic Bank and the timing of the arrival and usage of the funds.
The three-men bench also contended that there was ample evidence to debunk the contention by the appellant that he did not know the transactions, balances and sources of his personal accounts. “The appellant admits that the BBM chats showed that Jho Low was in communication directly with the appellant, and through Datuk Azlin, with regards the appellant’s bank balance so that the appellant could gauge how much he could spend based on the available balance in the accounts.
“Despite this evidence the appellant had testified that he only learnt of Jho Low’s role in his bank account during the trial. Thus they said it begged the question of what benefits did Najib’s action bring to the Malaysian government when the two Cabinets he chaired approved the government guarantees for the RM4 billion loan to be disbursed.
When guilty Buat Bodoh