PUTRAJAYA, March 11 — Then prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak was genuinely surprised about the RM42 million that were sent to his personal bank accounts from 1Malaysia Development Berhad’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) contractor Ihsan Perdana Sdn Bhd in December 2014 and early 2015, a witness told the High Court today.

Ihsan Perdana’s former managing director Datuk Dr Shamsul Anwar Sulaiman said this as the 14th defence witness in Najib’s trial, where over RM2 billion of 1MDB funds were alleged to have entered the former finance minister’s personal accounts.

After having been questioned by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) in late July 2015 for five days over the RM42 million, Dr Shamsul said he had met Najib at the latter’s house and claimed that Najib was “surprised” upon hearing that he was the one who had sent the money over in three transactions.

“I can see that his face is totally, you know, it looks surprised,” Dr Shamsul told Najib’s lead defence lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah.

“He said ‘Oh my God, why did you do that?’ So I explained to him,” he added.

Describing Najib as being “surprised and a bit shocked”, Dr Shamsul said it was a “genuine reaction” from the then prime minister.

Later when asked why he had described Najib to be surprised when he had used the word “shocked” yesterday, Dr Shamsul said this is just a matter of words and he meant the same thing with these two terms.

I have Najib’s number, didn’t call him after reading about RM42m [[[ Please keep bold as subheading]]]

Dr Shamsul today said he had in July 2015 learnt through a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) report that money had entered through his company Ihsan Perdana’s account before entering Najib’s account, and had also yesterday testified that he had discovered through the WSJ article that the RM42 million had came from SRC through its subsidiary Gandingan Mentari Sdn Bhd.

Asked by deputy public prosecutor Kamal Baharin Omar, Dr Shamsul said he did not call Najib upon learning about Ihsan Perdana’s account being used to send RM42 million to Najib’s accounts.

Dr Shamsul said this was because he was “busy with the entourage”, but said Najib did call him. Dr Shamsul yesterday said Najib had called him in July 2015 when he had travelled from Antwerp, Belgium to Brussels.

Dr Shamsul did not elaborate on what he meant by the word “entourage”, but had yesterday testified that he was in mid-June 2015 accompanying his close friend Tan Sri Wan Ahmad Zaki where they met the then Pahang crown prince in Antwerp for the World Hockey Competition there.

Dr Shamsul confirmed to Shafee that he would be able to contact Najib if there was a crisis, and that he had Najib’s handphone number.

Dr Shamsul said he had first met and got to know Najib in 1997 or 1998 when the latter was education minister and Umno Youth chief, and said he started to know Najib well from 2010.

Before being appointed briefly as 1MDB’s executive director from October 2010 to July 2011, Dr Shamsul said Najib had called him in around August and September 2010 and that he had met the latter at his Langgak Duta house, and said Najib was the one who had recommended him for the 1MDB position.

Dr Shamsul said he regarded Najib to be 1MDB’s adviser “because I think he’s one of the people who started to form 1MDB”.

Among other things, Dr Shamsul today confirmed that the RM42 million is related to 1MDB’s subsidiary SRC International Sdn Bhd and that it was not related to money transfers linked to 1MDB.

Dr Shamsul said he had been suspicious when Ihsan Perdana’s CSR funder Yayasan Rakyat 1Malaysia (YR1M) officials had told him his company’s account would be used as a transit account to temporarily hold RM42 million and that he would have to transfer the money out to a “private account”, and said YR1M officials had cited instructions from higher-ups.

Dr Shamsul said he did not know who were the higher-ups cited by YR1M officials, and said YR1M’s project director Dennis See had told him the transfer was for CSR purposes.

Although he felt suspicious as he did not receive an answer from YR1M about the source of the RM42 million and without knowing who owned the account that would receive the money, Dr Shamsul said he had allowed Ihsan Perdana to be used to send out the RM42 million and wrote down that in banking documents that the transfers were for CSR purposes.

Dr Shamsul agreed he should not have received the RM42 million as he was suspicious then and that these transfers were not backed by supporting documents unlike Ihsan Perdana’s usual payments for CSR projects.

After finding out that the RM42 million was sent to Najib’s accounts, Dr Shamsul said he did ask YR1M officials who said they received instructions for the transfer, but said he did not ask who instructed them and agreed that Ihsan Perdana had been used to transfer wrongful money.

Previously, 50th prosecution witness Jasmine Loo told the 1MDB trial that she had seen Dr Shamsul, Kee Kok Thiam and YR1M’s See at the Mayfair Hotel in London in early 2015, and that this was where she saw Kee preparing a letter dated 2014 for an alleged Saudi royal’s purported promise of donations to Najib.

But Dr Shamsul today said he was not in London or even overseas in early 2015, and said he does not know Kee or Loo.

Today, Senior Assistant Commissioner Rajagopal Ramadhass — who had investigated a December 2014 police report on alleged criminal breach of trust of 1MDB funds and retired in April 2023 — as the 11th defence witness said 1MDB’s board had on September 26, 2009 resolved for the company to enter into a US$1 billion joint venture with PetroSaudi International (PSI) Limited.

But 1MDB had ended up signing the deal with PetroSaudi Holdings (Cayman) Ltd.

Shafee then asked if Rajagopal’s investigation had shown whether Najib had given a directive for 1MDB to sign the joint venture with PetroSaudi Holdings (Cayman) Ltd.

Rajagopal said the police were blocked from asking Najib about this matter: “For my investigations, I was guided by what was given by the management, which said this PetroSaudi Cayman is a subsidiary to PSI Limited.

“As for whether Datuk Seri Najib gave orders, I did request to record Datuk Seri Najib’s statement then, but Tan Sri Shafee voiced objection as Datuk Seri Najib had been charged in court and he did objected for the police to record statement, so I cannot state what is his explanation about this matter.”

Rajagopal confirmed there are no documents showing Najib directing 1MDB to sign the joint venture with the Cayman-based company instead of PSI Ltd, and that Najib did not give a directive on how much money 1MDB should put into the joint venture.

He said his investigations did not show Najib having ordered how the US$1 billion that 1MDB injected into the joint venture would be used.

Najib’s 1MDB trial before trial judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah continues tomorrow, with Rajagopal expected to continue testifying.