Bnm S Money Trail Analyst Not An Expert Witness Shafee Tells Court In 1mdb Case

---

1MDB TRIAL | Najib Abdul Razak’s lead lawyer disputed the relevancy of testimony of Bank Negara Malaysia’s (BNM) money trail analyst as the witness had admitted in court of not being an “expert”.
Defence counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah told the Kuala Lumpur High Court that it may be better for parties to orally submit the relevancy of the 1MDB graft case’s money trail report and overall testimony of the 47th prosecution witness, Adam Ariff Mohd Roslan.
“I am wondering, in light of the witness’s admission that he is not an expert witness, whether we can submit that what he testified was irrelevant, as he expressed an opinion and finding in the report. He said he analysed it, and he admitted that it can be undertaken by anybody,” Shafee told judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah, who is presiding over the RM2.28 billion 1MDB corruption case against Najib.
However, deputy public prosecutor Ahmad Akram Gharib countered that Adam was never called by the prosecution to be an expert witness but to give evidence on facts following his analysis of various bank statements and other documentation.
“Failure to cross-examine amounts to acceptance (by Najib’s legal team on what Adam testified over the course of six days). It is as simple as that,” Akram said.
Sequerah then reminded the defence team that they could raise the same issue during oral submissions at the end of the prosecution’s case and that Najib’s lawyers should just proceed with the cross-examination of Adam.
Collin Lawrence SequerahAfter a short standdown, Shafee resumed the cross-examination of Adam.
During the preliminary stage of the cross-examination of Adam earlier today, Shafee remarked that his testimony from beginning to end relates to the BNM analyst making sense of various bank statements in order to come out with the money trail for the 1MDB case.
Shafee: Are you here as an expert witness?
Adam: No.
Shafee: What are you appearing here as?
Adam: I appear (in trial) as an analyst of the 1MDB task force.
Shafee: You were called in as an analyst but not as an expert?
Adam: Yes.
When Shafee asked whether he himself, if given the same bank documents as the ones given by MACC to Adam, would be able to understand the flow of the money trail, the BNM analyst said this would be so if the counsel has financial background such as financial analysis.
A quick rise through the ranks
According to his witness statement, Adam, 29, graduated with a Diploma in Business Studies in 2015 and a Bachelor (Hons) in Finance in 2017 at Universiti Teknologi MARA, where he received the Vice Chancellor’s Gold Medal Award, representing one of the highest distinctions of the university for excellence in academics and co-curricular activities.
The witness previously testified that he started his career at BNM as an intern at the Financial Intelligence and Enforcement Department (FIED) in 2017 and that following the end of his internship, he was absorbed into BNM as an associate analyst in the same year. 
He testified that in June 2018, he was seconded to the 1MDB Task Force at MACC as an analyst and that in 2019, he was upgraded to an analyst at BNM and later promoted to take on a managerial role last year.
Adam also testified that throughout his career as an analyst, he has attended multiple training courses in the areas of money laundering and terrorism financing.
During his six-day stint on the witness stand including today, Adam testified on the intricate and convoluted international monetary trail that allegedly involved RM2.28 billion of 1MDB funds ending up in Najib’s personal account over four phases from 2011 to 2014.
The money trail
Adam’s testimony went into detail on the breakdown of the transactions, including when a “Prince Faisal” from Saudi Arabia transferred US$20 million (RM60.6 million at the time) in 2011 and when company Blackstone Asia Real Estate Partners transferred US$30 million (RM90 million as of the exchange rate minus banking transfer fee back then) in 2012.
He also mentioned that Tanore Finance Corporation transferred US$681 million (RM2 billion at the time) into the accused’s account in 2013, and that Blackrock Commodities (Global) Ltd and Vista Equity International Partners Ltd (Barbados) transferred a total of RM49 million into Najib’s account in 2014.
In the prosecutors’ opening statement at the beginning of the trial in 2019, they contended that Tanore, Blackstone, Vista, and Blackrock are owned by Eric Tan, an alleged close associate of fugitive businessperson Low Taek Jho (Jho Low), and that Low was purportedly Najib’s “alter ego and mirror image”.
Low Taek JhoNajib is on trial over four counts of abuse of power and 21 counts of money laundering involving RM2.28 billion from 1MDB, a sovereign wealth fund fully owned by the Minister of Finance Incorporated (MOF Inc).
For the four abuse of power charges, the former Pekan MP is alleged to have committed the offences at AmIslamic Bank Bhd’s Jalan Raja Chulan branch in Bukit Ceylon, Kuala Lumpur, between Feb 24, 2011, and Dec 19, 2014.
On the 21 money laundering counts, the accused is purported to have committed the offences at the same bank between March 22, 2013, and Aug 30, 2013.
- Mkini

---