Uncomfortable holding US$620m, Najib returned funds after GE13, court told
Money given back to sender Tanore Finance Corporation, Shafee says.
The US$620 million returned by former Malaysian prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak in 2013 was not placed back into his own bank account, a High Court has heard. Angela Barkhouse, an offshore asset recovery expert and witness for 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), testified that the money was returned to Tanore Finance Corp, the entity identified as the sender.
Barkhouse, the managing director of Kroll (Cayman) Ltd and head of Kroll's Offshore Practice, was unsure about the exact timing of the funds' return. Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, representing Najib, suggested that the money was returned because his client felt uncomfortable keeping such a large sum in his account. Barkhouse confirmed that she did not know why Najib returned the US$620 million, noting that the version of events differed from bank documents and the statement of Richard Templeman, an international financial investigator.
Templeman's investigation indicated that the instruction to return the money came from Eric Tan, who was related to SRC International. The case involves 1MDB and four of its subsidiaries, who are plaintiffs, suing Najib and six others for allegedly misappropriating US$5.6 billion belonging to the company. The trial is set to resume tomorrow.
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