The prosecution likened 1MDB’s corporate affairs as being “run more like a Chinese coffeeshop at Petaling Street".
Senior deputy public prosecutor Gopal Sri Ram (above) made this comparison today when objecting to defence counsel Wan Aizuddin Wan Mohammed’s allegedly "irrelevant" line of cross-examination of a prosecution witness.
Wan Aizuddin was cross-examining former 1MDB CEO Mohd Hazem Abd Rahman during today’s corruption trial of former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak linked to RM2.28 billion from the sovereign wealth fund.
Before the Kuala Lumpur High Court today, Sri Ram raised the issue of the defence’s line of cross-examination of Hazem, which the prosecutor contended was not relevant to the prosecution’s case against Najib.
Wan Aizuddin was, among other issues, asking Hazem about the utilisation of US$975 million in loan to 1MDB for the buyback of call options from Aabar Investments PJS Limited, one of the international entities linked to the whole affair.
“We agree for what it is worth, that the affairs of 1MDB were run more like a Chinese coffeeshop at Petaling Street.
“We say that these people (various 1MDB personnel among others) acted on the direction of (1MDB-linked fugitive) Jho Low (whose real name is Low Taek Jho), who is the alter ego and mirror image of the accused (Najib), and both acted in concert.
“We were prepared to tolerate this line of cross-examination as it is completely irrelevant to our case,” Sri Ram informed trial judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah.
Wan Aizuddin then informed the court that the defence’s line of cross-examination was to show that the wrongdoing at 1MDB was due to the machination of Low without the involvement of Najib.
“They (prosecution) have their case, but we have our case. We say that there was mismanagement (at 1MDB), but it was perpetrated by Jho Low and does not involve our client,” the defence counsel said.
As Najib looked on from the dock, Wan Aizuddin contended that the way of cross-examination was necessary as Hazem allegedly kept forgetting things while being questioned during the trial.
Sequerah then reminded the defence counsel that the witness may not recall much details on certain events as the affair took place many years ago, and asked the defence to try to keep the questions short before moving on.
The trial resumes this afternoon.
Bridging loan and facility loan
Previously in the prosecution’s opening statement at the beginning of former premier Najib’s RM2.28 billion 1MDB corruption trial two years ago, it was contended that the accused approved the fund’s subsidiary 1MDB Energy Holdings Ltd, to obtain two loans totalling US$1.225 billion from Deutsche Bank Singapore. The loans were allegedly secured by guarantees provided by 1MDB Energy and 1MDB Langat.
The prosecution contended that there was a bridging loan of US$250 million and a facility loan of US$975 million. The first loan of US$250 million was allegedly made available on May 26, 2014.
From this amount, a sum of US$239,939,970 was allegedly paid into 1MDB Energy Holdings Ltd’s account with Falcon Bank Hong Kong on 28 May 2014. Of this sum, Energy Holdings allegedly paid Aabar Investments PJS Ltd BVI US$175 million to its account in BSI Lugano, Switzerland, purportedly to partly redeem the option given as additional security that was mentioned earlier.
However, the defence team has always contended that Najib has no knowledge of wrongdoing at 1MDB, and that what transpired there was due to the machinations of Low and several other individuals.
Najib is on trial for four counts of abuse of power and 21 counts of money laundering involving RM2.28 billion of 1MDB’s funds.
Najib was also the finance minister and chairperson of 1MDB’s board of advisers. 1MDB is fully owned by the Minister of Finance Incorporated (MOF Inc). - Mkini
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