The Malaysian Insight

LOW Taek Jho had to keep a low profile while involved in 1Malaysia Development Bhd because Umno politicians were “envious” of the Penang-born businessman’s close relationship with former prime minister Najib Razak.

“There was this ‘perasaan dengki’ (envy) that people in Umno had of Jho Low’s influence and access to Datuk Seri Najib,” former 1MDB CEO Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi said while under cross-examination today at Najib’s trial.

“It made sense to me when Jho (Low) informed me that his involvement (in 1MDB) needed to be kept low key as to not weaken Datuk Seri Najib’s position.”

Najib, 66, faces four charges of using his position to obtain bribes totalling RM2.3 billion from 1MDB funds and 21 charges of laundering the same amount. Prosecutors have accused Najib of conspiring with Low to defraud the fund.

Lead defence counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah had asked Shahrol  why he thought Low wanted to keep a low profile.

“I asked him early on and his answer was that the optics, politically, would be bad for Datuk Seri Najib,” Shahrol said, adding that Low’s Chinese ethnicity was considered a political liability.

When Shafee said that Low’s involvement was a well-known fact, Shahrol replied, “The context was different in 2009, 2010 and 2011. Very few people then knew he was assisting Datuk Seri Najib in closing these deals and sorting things out.”  

“Jho was playing a big role in Datuk Najib’s relationships with the Saudis, the Abu Dhabi (government) and even the Chinese, at the time.”

Shafee then suggested out that Low’s ethnicity did not matter as then 1MDB director Terence Geh, former 1MDB business development executive director Casey Tang and 1MDB’s then general counsel Jasmine Loo were also Chinese.

Shafee: I am putting it to you that Jho Low was using persons like Terence Geh, Casey Tang and Jasmine Loo to do his bidding in 1MDB, and that he managed to school you in taking instructions because you were accustomed to taking instructions from your days at Accenture.  

Shahrol: That is possible.

Shafee: On hindsight, do you find that given the current circumstances, if you were to start all over again, you would have acted differently with Jho Low?

Shahrol: Given what I know now, definitely.
 
Najib is represented by a dozen lawyers led by Shafee. Former Federal Court judge Gopal Sri Ram leads the prosecution while Kuala Lumpur High Court judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah presides.

The trial continues. – October 7, 2019.