PUTRAJAYA, April 21 — Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) did not intervene when 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) decided to split its initial US$1 billion lump sum transfer into two transfers of US$700 million and US$300 million, as it viewed it as a “commercial decision”, the High Court heard today.

1MDB in 2009 sent out US$700 million sum to Low Taek Jho’s company Good Star Limited, and US$20 million (equivalent to more than RM60 million) of this money allegedly ended up in former prime minister Najib’s private bank account in 2011.

Najib is on trial over more than RM2 billion of 1MDB funds which were said to have entered his private bank accounts, but he has continued to insist that the huge sums of money were donations to him from Saudi Arabia’s royalty.

Testifying this morning as the 22nd defence witness in Najib’s 1MDB trial, Deutsche Bank (M) Berhad’s former CEO Raymond Yeoh Chen Seong said 1MDB had changed its initial instructions to send US$1 billion overseas to joint venture firm 1MDB-PetroSaudi Limited.

As 1MDB’s new instructions to split up the US$1 billion transfer was different from BNM’s approval, Yeoh said Deutsche Bank had then obtained 1MDB staff’s confirmation and he had also personally called BNM’s Foreign Exchange Administration Department’s Wan Hanisah for clarification.

“Wan Hanisah said that it is not for BNM to say anything, and it is a business decision of 1MDB,” said the 62-year-old who was CEO of Deutsche Bank (M) Berhad from 2006 to 2013.

Following 1MDB’s instructions, Deutsche Bank then sent US$300 million to a JP Morgan bank account, and US$700 million to an RBS Coutts account.

1MDB staff Stephenny Chow in an email reply to Deutsche Bank’s query said that the US$700 million recipient was PetroSaudi International Ltd, and the US$300 million recipient was 1MDB PetroSaudi Ltd.

Yeoh said no red flags were found when Deutsche Bank used these two company names for compliance checks, but also said the US$700 million account was later revealed to be Good Star’s account.

Yeoh’s court testimony today is similar to Ho’s previous testimony as the 30th prosecution witness in the 1MDB trial.

This afternoon, Shafee presented his arguments on why the High Court should not set aside two subpoenas for 1MDB’s two company secretaries to come to court as defence witnesses.

Among other things, Shafee argued that the duo’s court testimony would be relevant to Najib’s defence in the 1MDB trial and not an abuse of court process, and said Najib now only wants to get 1MDB board documents during the May to July 2021 period instead of the initial requested period of the years 2018 to 2024.

1MDB’s lawyer Datuk Lim Chee Wee however argued that the information that Najib is seeking to get through the 1MDB company secretaries is privileged information, and had previously said the subpoenas should be set aside as Najib was on a “fishing expedition”.

Trial judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah said he will deliver his decision on Thursday afternoon on whether the subpoenas will be set aside, and said the 1MDB trial will resume tomorrow morning.