Ihsan Perdana Sdn Bhd transferred millions into two bank accounts without knowing that Najib Abdul Razak was the account holder, the Kuala Lumpur High Court heard today.
The company's managing director, Dr Shamsul Anwar Sulaiman (above), in reading out his witness statement, said he authorised three remittances from his company to AmBank accounts ending with numbers 906 and 880.
The three remittances amounted to RM27 million, RM5 million and RM10 million respectively. The transactions took place between December 2014 and February 2015.
Testifying at Najib's SRC International corruption trial, Shamsul, a former Umno Youth exco member, said he had acted on instructions from Yayasan Rakyat 1Malaysia CEO Ung Su Ling.
He said Ung never responded to his request for information on who the recipient of the funds was.
Shamsul said he would not have transferred the money had he known that Najib was the account holder.
"Najib never contacted me over the payment," the witness repeated thrice when detailing the three transactions.
He added that he had attempted to find out from AmBank who the accounts belonged to, but was rebuffed.
According to Shamsul Anwar, Ihsan Perdana - incorporated in the 1990s as Gem Horizons Sdn Bhd - was supposed to act as SRC International Sdn Bhd's corporate social responsibility (CSR) arm.
Shamsul Anwar told the court that the company had received RM40 million from an unknown source, and was informed by Yayasan Rakyat 1Malaysia (YR1M) officials that money would be moved through his company.
"Someone (from YR1M) came and said the Ihsan Perdana account will be used for transit (of funds) and transferred out.
"I asked for details, but it was not furnished," he said.
Shamsul said he only knew about the transfer of RM42 million from Gandingan Menteri Sdn Bhd (an SRC International subsidiary) when he read the Wall Street Journal in 2015 while in Belgium.
During cross-examination by lead defence counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, Shamsul revealed that he was a medical practitioner and had been doing CSR work since the 1990s.
Earlier, Shamsul, 58, told the court that he was a medical practitioner who was roped into 1MDB to perform CSR activities.
Eventually, 1MDB's board of directors instructed him to set up another company to perform CSR activities.
"The proposal (was) to set up a private limited company after 1MDB's board of directors found that there was a conflict of interest for 1MDB to conduct CSR activities.
"I do not know why Yayasan 1MDB (YR1M) did not continue to carry out CSR activities as I know that it can do CSR work but does not have the capacity.
"From the discussion in the board of directors meeting, I was ordered to find a shell company to take over CSR work," he said.
Following this, Shamsul said on the advice of a company secretary, he took over an existing company called "Gem Horizon" and turned it into Ihsan Perdana.
Shamsul was eventually relieved of his position in 1MDB and he and one "Haji Aziz" each hold a RM1 share in Ihsan Perdana.
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