CEO of 1MDB precursor had to squat in Jho Low's office in early days

1MDB TRIAL | The first CEO of Terengganu Investment Authority (TIA) Bhd, which later morphed into 1MDB, had to squat in Utama Banking Group's (UBG) office in KLCC during the company's early days, the Kuala Lumpur High Court heard today.

Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi testified that he had to use UBG's meeting room at the Petronas Twin Towers. It was the same office that 1MDB-linked businessperson Low Taek Jho, better known as Jho Low, had used as UBG's managing director then.

Jho Low was also the unofficial adviser of TIA since its early days until he was given official appointment by the then Terengganu sovereign wealth fund's board of directors on April 8, 2009, according to Shahrol.

"During the initial stage of TIA operations, I had to squat at the meeting room of UBG office at the Twin Towers, KLCC.

"Jho Low as the senior officer of UBG had, almost every day, asked me about the progress of (TIA's) Islamic Medium Term Notes (IMTN).

"I believed that he, as an adviser to TIA, had received orders from stakeholders to rush the issuance of this IMTN," said Shahrol, who is the ninth prosecution witness in the 1MDB criminal trial against former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak.

For the record, UBG was initially controlled by the family of former Sarawak chief minister Abdul Taib Mahmud (above) through their Cahaya Mata Sarawak Bhd (CMS) company.

UBG had in 2007 gained some RM2.23 billion when it sold its stake in RHB Bank/RHB Capital Bhd to the Employees Provident Fund, after which Jho Low made connection with the company and convinced it to sell him a substantial stake in UBG.

However, his ties with Taib's family were strained due to Jho Low having allegedly “flipping stakes” to make profits.

Jho Low had then reportedly used money that was infused by 1MDB to Petrosaudi to buy over UBG completely, in what was said to be a move to appease Taib.

TIA bonds issuance had to be sped up to secure Mubadala investment

During the proceeding today, which entered its 11th day, the court also heard from Shahrol that he had to speed up the process of issuing TIA's IMTN bonds due to several factors.

According to him, this includes UBG's plan to develop a project at Pulau Bidong in Terengganu in a joint venture with Mubadala Real Estate, where investments from the project would come from TIA and the UAE's sovereign wealth fund.

"There was pressure from Jho Low as the adviser of TIA to secure this IMTN, using the excuse that His Highness Tuanku Mizan (Terengganu Ruler and then Yang di-Pertuan Agong) and Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak (then prime minister) as stakeholders had asked me to rush this fundraising programme. This was because TIA had started without any funding," Shahrol said. - Mkini