Shayne Elliot, ANZ’s chief executive,
is appearing before
MPs to answer questions about
the bank’s conduct.
Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP
FreeMalaysiaToday has reported, quoting the testimony under oath of Krystle Yap, who was a relationship manager with ANZ-AMBank's wholesale banking coverage department:
Krystle Yap, who was a relationship manager with the bank’s wholesale banking coverage department, said her supervisor, Joanna Yu, had instructed her to meet Kee Kok Thiam, as Kee wanted to bank in the cash into Najib’s accounts.
“From what I was told, this was because those accounts had become overdrawn.
To questions on whether Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) had flagged Najib’s accounts due to “suspicious transactions” over fund transfers from 2011 to 2015, the witness said the transactions were not flagged as “suspicious”.
“I was merely acting on Joanna’s instructions to expedite Kee’s dealings with our branch where I had arranged a staff member in the branch to attend to him (Kee) straight away,” she said, when asked by Najib’s lawyer Farhan Read about cash deposits made between 2014 and 2015.
From the testimony above it can now be confirmed that Najib Razak's deposits were large enough for ANZ managed AMBank to treat as wholesale and not merely retail funding for the bank.
ANZ-AMBank cannot pretend that it did not profit from managing Najib's KWAP and 1MDB money. The improbable premise that ANZ-AMBank adapted to deflect blame, that Najib was just another client and that senior managers would not have known how his funds were being managed was never tenable because of Najib's position and the huge sums of money); now it is even less so ( (see story below)From the testimony above it can now be confirmed that Najib Razak's deposits were large enough for ANZ managed AMBank to treat as wholesale and not merely retail funding for the bank.
In fact from the testimony above it does appear as if ANZ, AMBank and Bank Negara all turned a blind eye to the actual source of Najib's money. That a fine was later imposed on Ambank by Bank Negara is simply a reflection of the fact that then Governor Zeti Aziz only acted against AMBank after being warned by Mahathir.
END
SEE ALSO
The issue was,and remains ,ANZ client and "ally" Najib Razak, not 1MDB:Another example of how ANZ and Shayne Elliot misled parliament
by Ganesh Sahathevan
Shayne Elliot, ANZ’s chief executive,
is appearing before
MPs to answer questions about
the bank’s conduct.
Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP
The Guardian reported this response from ANZ CEO Shayne Elliot to the House of Representatives Economics Committee when questioned about the 1MDB money laundering scandal:
Shayne Elliot, ANZ’s chief executive,
is appearing before
MPs to answer questions about
the bank’s conduct.
Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP
The Guardian reported this response from ANZ CEO Shayne Elliot to the House of Representatives Economics Committee when questioned about the 1MDB money laundering scandal:
“No link” to 1MDB scandal, Shayne Elliott says
Adam Bandt has quizzed the ANZ executives about its role sitting on the board of Malaysian bank AmBank which held billions in the 1MDB funds at the centre of a global financial scandal.
More than $US1bn is alleged to have flowed into Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak’s bank accounts between January 2011 and April 2013 — much of it from 1MDB.
ANZ chief executive Shayne Elliott says he is satisfied nobody employed by ANZ did anything wrong and the bank was not being investigated by the US Justice Department.
He says the bank has no relationship with 1MDB, or link to what is alleged to have happened.
This response is disingenious at best, for the issue was always , and remains, as reported above , ANZ and AMBanlk’s collusion in Najib’s laundering of funds misappropriated from 1MDB:
ANZ has since its acquisition of an interest in AMBank “significant management and operational influence” over AMBank (see See Page 29 of the ANZ announcement to the SEC),and has a special relationship with Najib over and beyond that of client.As PM and Minister for Finance ANZ had been in active negotiations with Najib to increase its stake in AMBank.
ANZ finds an unlikely ally at the top in
Malaysia
Mar 8 2011 at 12:34 AM Updated Mar 8 2011 at 8:04 AM
by Sarah Thompson and Jamie Freed
From little things big things grow – until you hit a foreign ownership cap.
Some welcome news for ANZ Banking Group’s Asian strategy has emerged from Malaysia. The country’s Prime Minister, Najib Razak , has reportedly said he was open to allowing ANZ to increase its stake in Malaysian bank AmBank Group above the 30 per cent foreign ownership cap to 49 per cent.
Malaysia provides some of the highest returns on equity for banks anywhere in the world and ANZ has a toe hold with a 24 per cent stake in AmBank, the country’s fifth-largest lender.
ANZ has been looking at ways to either become bigger or get out of its minority holdings in Asian banks, and Najib’s comments provide a welcome sign that Asian countries may be looking to ease their rules to attract greater foreign investment.
Deutsche Bank yesterday said a greater stake in AmBank would be an attractive fit with ANZ’s Asian expansion strategy. Malaysia certainly ticks Asia chief Alex Thursby ’s boxes of growing fast while having lots of savings in its bank deposits. AmBank’s shares are also trading at an attractively low valuation at 1.8 times book value.
“According to ( Joanna Yu) she had informed Mr Cheah Tek Kuang and later Mr Ashok Ramamoorthy(of ANZ ) and our Compliance Department of all the incoming funds and the corresponding ‘gift letters’ attached to them.
“She also said Mr Cheah also reported to the (Bank Negara) governor, Zeti Akhtar Aziz,” Yap said. Cheah and Ashok were Ambank’s former managing directors.
When questioned by ad-hoc prosecutor V Sithambaram as to whether SRC International and its subsidiary company, Gandingan Mentari Sdn Bhd, had made any complaints that Ambank had acted without authority in transferring RM42 million from SRC International to Gandingan Mentari, and subsequently to Ihsan Perdana Sdn Bhd on Dec 24, 2014, Yap said there was no complaint.
Cash banked into Najib’s accounts not flagged as ‘suspicious’, court told
1.2kShares
1.1k
77
19
KUALA LUMPUR: A former Ambank officer told the High Court in Najib Razak’s SRC International trial that she was told by her then supervisor to assist an associate of fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho in depositing cash into the former prime minister’s bank accounts.
Krystle Yap, who was a relationship manager with the bank’s wholesale banking coverage department, said her supervisor, Joanna Yu, had instructed her to meet Kee Kok Thiam, as Kee wanted to bank in the cash into Najib’s accounts.
“From what I was told, this was because those accounts had become overdrawn.
“I was merely acting on Joanna’s instructions to expedite Kee’s dealings with our branch where I had arranged a staff member in the branch to attend to him (Kee) straight away,” she said, when asked by Najib’s lawyer Farhan Read about cash deposits made between 2014 and 2015.
However, Yap said she could not confirm how much money Kee had deposited into Najib’s accounts.
To questions on whether Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) had flagged Najib’s accounts due to “suspicious transactions” over fund transfers from 2011 to 2015, the witness said the transactions were not flagged as “suspicious”.
“According to Joanna, she had informed Mr Cheah Tek Kuang and later Mr Ashok Ramamoorthy and our Compliance Department of all the incoming funds and the corresponding ‘gift letters’ attached to them.
“She also said Mr Cheah also reported to the (Bank Negara) governor, Zeti Akhtar Aziz,” Yap said. Cheah and Ashok were Ambank’s former managing directors.
When questioned by ad-hoc prosecutor V Sithambaram as to whether SRC International and its subsidiary company, Gandingan Mentari Sdn Bhd, had made any complaints that Ambank had acted without authority in transferring RM42 million from SRC International to Gandingan Mentari, and subsequently to Ihsan Perdana Sdn Bhd on Dec 24, 2014, Yap said there was no complaint.
Yap was one of the bank officers, along with Yu and Daniel Lee, tasked with managing the accounts of SRC International and Gandingan Mentari at Ambank.The hearing continues tomorrow (Jan 5) before High Court judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali when former Treasury secretary-general Mohd Irwan Serigar Abdullah will testify.
Najib is facing six charges of money laundering and criminal breach of trust in the transfer of RM42 million to his account from SRC International, a former unit of 1MDB.
He is also accused of abusing his power as prime minister by giving government guarantees on SRC International’s RM4 billion loan from Retirement Fund Inc
No comments:
Post a Comment