KUALA LUMPUR: Former SRC International Bhd director Datuk Suboh Md Yassin said he had throughout his tenure in the company merely served as a rubber stamp to carry out the behest of the top, namely former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, who was the advisor emeritus.

Suboh, 73, who was the company's non-executive director, said the affairs in SRC were singularly directed by one person, its ex-chief executive officer Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil, who was Najib's proxy and had acted on his behalf.

Suboh said any communication between Najib and the directors would be conveyed via Nik Faisal,who would only approach him if there were documents to be signed.

"My queries would regularly be brushed aside with a statement suggesting that the underlying transaction must be done at the behest of Najib like 'boss nak lah' (boss wants it) or 'diminta pihak atas' (requested by higher-ups)," he said, referring to Najib.

"Most of the time, the document to be signed by me would already have been signed by Nik Faisal. I was required merely to countersign," he said when testifying as a third party witness in SRC's US$1.18 billion civil suit against Najib and Nik Faisal Ariff, who is at large.

Suboh said as a result of such "modus operandi", he was not in any position to verify if he had, in fact, signed certain documents or whether his signatures appearing on SRC related documents had been forged.

"I note that Nik Faisal usually used to bring a number of documents for me to sign and I would have signed them pursuant to his request.

"The same modus operandi of which I was accustomed to act and to implement equally applies to SRC's subsidiary companies," he said.

Under cross examination by Najib's lawyer, Muhammad Farhan Muhammad Shafee, Suboh said he would not have allowed anyone to use his signature, whether it was handwritten or digital.

"But behind my back, I do not know. (Digital signature) That is more dangerous," he said.

Suboh said Nik Faisal had hid certain things when he failed to submit SRC's 2013 financial accounts to the Companies Commission of Malaysia.

Asked by Farhan if it had showed Nik Faisal's dishonesty as he had misrepresented the board on other things, Suboh said it was entirely possible.

Suboh said the existence of the board was perhaps to just fulfil some perceived corporate requirements and never intended to be involved in the day-to-day running of SRC, any of its investment plans nor in the decision-making process.

"The discretion or powers of the board appears, in hindsight, to have been divested and reduced to a process of minimal oversight and giving feedback and at times caution to the management.

"Whether such caution was heeded by management, particularly Nik Faisal, is not known," he said.

SRC, under its new management, filed the suit in May 2021, claiming that Najib had committed a breach of trust and power abuse, personally benefited from the company's funds and misappropriated the said funds.

It is also seeking a court declaration that Najib is responsible for the company's losses due to his breach of duties and trust, and for Najib to pay back the RM42 million in losses that it has suffered.

Najib, 70, has been serving a jail sentence at the Kajang Prison since Aug 23, 2022, after being convicted of misappropriating RM42 million in SRC International funds.

The trial before High Court judge Datuk Ahmad Fairuz Zainol Abidin resumes on Monday.

https://www.nst.com.my/news/crime-courts/2024/06/1066095/ex-src-director-i-was-just-companys-rubber-stamp