The Malaysian Insight

FORMER 1Malaysia Development Bhd CEO Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi today conceded that he may have been hired to lead the entity in 2009 due to his inexperience in financial matters.

Shahrol was appointed as chief executive of 1MDB’s precursor, the Terengganu Investment Authority (TIA), on March 23, 2009, based on the recommendation of Low Taek Jho, better known as Jho Low.

The prosecution witness in former prime minister Najib Razak’s trial told the Kuala Lumpur High Court that he lacked knowledge on fundraising matters at the time of his appointment.

During cross-examination, lead defence counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah suggested that it was Shahrol’s lack of knowledge that landed him the position.

Shafee: Do you think Jho Low engaged you because you knew nothing about finances, and he had you (wrapped around his) finger?

Shahrol: At that time, I didn’t think so.

Shafee: Now, in hindsight?

Shahrol: That is a possibility.

Najib, 66, faces four charges of using his position to obtain bribes totalling RM2.3 billion from 1MDB and 21 charges of laundering the same amount.

Prosecutors have accused him of conspiring with the Penang-born Low, who is on the lam, to defraud the state investor.

Shahrol testified that he met Low in 2007, while working as managing director at consulting firm Accenture. Low was then managing director at Utama Banking Group.

Shahrol said it was Low who brought him to the Terengganu palace in Kuala Lumpur on March 21, 2009 to meet then Yang di-Pertuan Agong Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin.

Present at the meeting were the ruler’s brother-in-law, Abdul Aziz Mohd Akhir, as well as former 1MDB directors Azlan Zainol and Ismee Ismail, he told the court.

He maintained that he never hid his lack of experience in fundraising from TIA’s board and stakeholders, including Sultan Mizan.

“I was called to the palace. I was introduced to the (then) Agong, and I was given the offer. If I wasn’t qualified in some respects, then it was the people who appointed me who should have known that.”

Shafee asked whether Shahrol informed Low that he had “zero funding experience”.

The witness said he did.

“Jho Low was my sole interface at the time.

“And, I was not given the opportunity to speak to (Sultan Mizan) about my concerns. That was my first time ever at the palace. That was my first time ever meeting the (then) Agong. I was not quite prepared for it.”

When Shafee pointed out that Shahrol knew Azlan from his time at Accenture, the witness said: “I did not see that as necessary, because he knew my background and he knew my strengths.”

The lawyer then asked about Shahrol’s inclusion of the word “ambitious” in his witness statement.

Shafee: Surely you are ambitious to come up in the corporate world.

Shahrol: The Oxford dictionary defines “ambitious” as having the desire or determination to succeed. By that measure, yes. I harboured ambitions of being successful at the task given to me.

You are trying to say because I wanted the position, therefore, I hid my weakness in fundraising from the stakeholders. That would be incorrect.

Shafee: You don’t have to go into definitions. My question is whether you were ambitious. I was being clinical in my question.

Shahrol: I am ambitious, in the sense that I was given a task and I was determined to be successful at it. Regarding my character, you would have to ask the people who know me. And, I have just explained about myself to the court.

Najib is represented by a dozen lawyers. Former Federal Court judge Gopal Sri Ram leads the prosecution before Kuala Lumpur High Court judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah.

The trial continues. – October 8, 2019.