KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court today heard that an anti-graft investigating officer (IO) never bothered to record Datuk Seri Najib Razak's statement about a RM9.5 million payment to Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah which eventually led to the senior lawyer being charged with money laundering.
This was revealed by Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC) investigating officer Mohamad Farid Jabar when he was cross examined by Shafee's lawyer, Harvinderjit Singh.
Farid confirmed this with a simple 'No' when Harvinderjit posed the question and asked him whether he had even bothered to ask Najib why the payment was made.
The IO, who is the eight prosecution witness in the case, also acknowledged that no other lawyers from Shafee's firm were questioned about the payment.
Asked what had prompted him to lodge a report against Shafee in Sept, 2018 to kickstart an investigation over the RM9.5 million payment to the lawyer, Farid said he had done so based on instructions from his higher ups.
He, however, denied having received any instructions on the matter from former Attorney General Tan Sri Tommy Thomas.
The court had previously heard that Shafee received RM9.5 million from Najib at the latter's office on two occasions, in September 2013 and February 2014.
It was revealed that the money was not deposited into Shafee's law firm account but into his personal one.
The RM9.5 million was said to be the legal fees for Shafee in representing Barisan Nasional (BN) in 46 election petition cases from 2004 to 2006.
However, based on tax records, Shafee did not declare the income in his 2014 or 2015 tax returns.
Shafee is standing trial on four counts of money laundering involving the said amount.
The prosecution has alleged that he had breached Section 4(1)(a) of the Anti Money Laundering Act (Amla) by receiving proceeds from unlawful activities as well as making inaccurate statements to the Inland Revenue Board (IRB) for the 2013 and 2014 assessment years.
Meanwhile, to another question from Harvinderjit on whether he was aware that the RM9.5 million payment was initially raised by Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, Farid said he did not know.
Anwar had previously alleged that Shafee had received the money from Najib to lead the prosecution team in his Sodomy II trial, which saw him jailed for five years.
The hearing before High Court Judge Datuk Muhammad Jamil Hussin will resume on May 12.