The Malaysian Insight

LOW Taek Jho produced support letters from various entities to proclaim the legitimacy of 1MDB’s US$2.5 billion (RM10.5 billion) joint venture with private oil company PetroSaudi International, the Kuala Lumpur High Court heard today. 

Najib Razak’s former special officer Amhari Efendi Nazaruddin testified that Low produced the letters between the end of 2014 and early 2015, after media reports claimed that the 2009 joint venture was a sham to pilfer public funds.

Low had handed over letters of support from an unnamed former Malaysian ambassador to Saudi Arabia, JP Morgan and wealth management firm Helvetica.

The letters were in relation to PetroSaudi. 

Low also handed over a reference letter, allegedly from a Saudi commercial banking authority, addressed to PetroSaudi CEO Tarek Essam Ahmad Obaid.

Amhari said the letters, dated from 2010 to 2011, claimed that PetroSaudi was a legitimate firm.

“These letters were among the ‘talking points’ and ‘checklist’ documents prepared by Jho Low, who was doing damage control on the 1MDB issue, which was widely publicised by the media at the time, including by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and Sarawak Report.” 

Low’s plan, Amhari said, was to head off a special task force that comprised the attorney-general, inspector-general of police, Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission director and central bank governor. 

Ahmari said he had kept the documents in case Najib’s principal private secretary, Azlin Alias, needed them. 

Amhari said he had ignored a later instruction by Low to shred the documents: “Jho did ask us to destroy the documents to that they do not spread to the wider public but I did not destroy the documents.

 

“I did not take any further action after receiving these documents and I do not know whether Azlin took follow-up actions or not.”

Azlin died in a helicopter crash on April 4, 2015. Authorities began raiding premises linked to the 1MDB scandal in early July 2015. By January the following year, then attorney-general Apandi Ali had declared that no crimes had been committed in relation to 1MDB. Low remains a fugitive from the law. 

Najib is on trial for 25 criminal charges relating to RM2.3 billion in 1MDB-linked funds. 

He faces four counts of abusing his position to gain for himself RM2.3 billion and a further 21 counts of money laundering related to the same amount.

The 66-year-old is represented by a dozen lawyers led by Muhammad Shafee Abdullah.

Gopal Sri Ram, a former Federal Court judge, leads the prosecution while Kuala Lumpur High Court judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah presides. 

The trial continues tomorrow. – September 3, 2019.