SRC trial: Ismee says he was not pressured by MACC to implicate anyone

KUALA LUMPUR: Tan Sri Ismee Ismail told the High Court that he was not pressured by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) to implicate any entities or persons for the SRC International Sdn Bhd case.

The former chairman of the SRC International's board of directors said this under cross-examination on Tuesday (June 18) by Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, lead counsel to former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

Muhammad Shafee: In the course of the MACC investigation, you were asked to implicate the SRC shareholder, that is the Ministry of Finance Inc.

Ismee: No, I don’t think so.

Muhammad Shafee: There was no such goading or attempts to do that.

Ismee: No.

Ismee instead said that throughout the course of the MACC interviews, he thought that he had committed an offence.

"I was questioning myself, did I do anything wrong here?" he told the court.

Ismee, however, agreed with Muhammad Shafee that MACC had frozen his bank account and that he had been blacklisted from travelling overseas.

It was a light moment in court when Ismee's travel ban was revealed, as he had found out about it when applying to go for umrah.

Muhmammad Shafee: Did they tell you that you have done too many umrah? As that is their standard answer.

Ismee: (Smiles) No.

When asked why his accounts were frozen, Ismee said that it could have been related to him recovering his director's fee from SRC International.

Ismee was the 39th witness at Najib's SRC International trial.

Najib is facing seven charges involving RM42mil in funds belonging to SRC International, formerly a subsidiary of 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB).

On July 4 last year, Najib claimed trial to a charge of abuse of power and three counts of criminal breach of trust linked to the 1MDB scandal.

He allegedly misappropriated RM42mil in funds belonging to SRC International.

On Aug 8 last year, he was charged with three counts of money laundering involving the same RM42mil.