LIVE: Defence suggests Jho Low-AmBank dealings were ‘serious allegations’
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THE Najib Razak trial over 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) funds enters its 19th day today with the ninth prosecution witness, former Terengganu Investment Authority (TIA) and 1MDB CEO Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi, returning to the stand for further cross-examination.
Yesterday, Shahrol told the court that he never saw fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho, commonly known as Jho Low, sign a document related to 1MDB.
The witness, however, said he was not alarmed by that fact because Low was never appointed to any official post in 1MDB.
The 49-year-old Shahrol conceded that he might 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, TIA, on March 23, 2009 based on Low’s recommendation to the Terengganu palace.
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.
Najib, 66, is on trial for four counts of power abuse to enrich himself with RM2.3 billion from 1MDB and 21 counts of laundering the same amount.
He 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.
Najib is represented by a dozen lawyers led by Muhammad Shafee Abdullah.
Former Federal Court judge Gopal Sri Ram is leading the prosecution before Kuala Lumpur High Court judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah.
The Malaysian Insight brings you today’s proceedings live:
4.31pm: Court is adjourned.
4.30pm: Shafee ends his cross-examination the day .
4.03pm: They go through the minutes of a cabinet meeting where a RM5 billion bond from TIA.was approved.
3.05pm: Shafee suggests Low’s dealings with AmBank were serious allegations made by The Edge newspaper.
Shafee says it has become a public issue. He then shows the witness a story published in The Edge on February 4, 2019.
The article says two companies linked to Low secretly bought TIA bonds at a discounted price and then resold them for a profit of close to RM500 million.
2.38pm: Court resumes its session.
12.42pm: Court is in recess.
12.26pm: Shahrol says Najib had asked him why the Terengganu royalty was angry at Low.
12.23pm: Shafee suggests to Shahrol that Low was the one who told Najib that cancelling the TIA bonds would look bad on the government.
Shahrol agrees it was Low who suggested it.
12.18pm: Shafee suggests the Terengganu sultan had a notion that Low was involved in sham deals.
Shahrol agrees but says he cannot speak for the sultan.
11.52am: Shafee suggests Low was in the habit of drafting sham agreements to dupe the government.
11.35am: Judge Sequerah gets annoyed at someone whose phone went off during proceedings.
He tells the court registrar to tell the people seated at the public gallery that if it happens again, he will confiscate all phones and bar them from being in the courtroom.
Shafee continues his cross-examination.
Shafee suggests that Low’s group made about US$120 million overnight for his company.
Shahrol says Low had not told the board about these “secret arrangements”.
11.28am: Court is in session. Shafee continues his cross-examination.
10.44am: Judge allows a break for the witness to go over some documents.
10.13am: Shahrol confirms he has never met Bank Negara officials over the bonds issuance.
He says he was told by Low and AmBank relationship manager Joanna Yu that they have met central bank officials.
Shahrol confirms he never told the board that it was only Low and Yu who met Bank Negara officials.
He agrees with Shafee’s suggestion that the TIA board was probably under the impression that it was Shahrol who met with central bank officials.
10.06am: Shahrol confirms Goldman Sachs Singapore was appointed as financial advisor for the TIA bonds issuance, referred to as the Islamic medium term notes (IMTN).
He says only former chairman of 1MDB’s board of directors Bakke Salleh pointed to the difference in the amount raised from the IMTN, which was RM5 billion, and the amount received by TIA.
10.03am: Shafee shows Shahrol a document from AmBank dated May 27, 2009. It relates to the bonds issuance TIA made. TIA was to receive RM4.3 billion from AmInvestment.
Shahrol says he has never seen the document nor made efforts to procure it
“I did not know that at the time that as 1MDB CEO to demand for these particulars,” he says.
9.55am: Shahrol is called to the stand to be cross-examined.
9.54am: Court is in session. – October 9, 2019.
