Neither former premier Najib Abdul Razak nor 1MDB's management team made complaints with the authorities to investigate the misappropriation of funds from the Malaysian sovereign wealth fund since 2009, claimed an MACC investigating officer.
Nur Aida Arifin was testifying before the Kuala Lumpur High Court today about her investigation into the alleged abuse of power case against Najib, who is also a former finance minister.
The 49th prosecution witness read out the final portion of her written statement, following amendments done to the statement by the prosecution after the defence team objected over the testimony being full of hearsay and opinionated.
"1MDB funds have been misappropriated since 2009, however, no action was taken against (fugitive businessperson) Jho Low (whose real name is Low Taek Jho) or any party.
"No complaint was lodged by Najib or 1MDB's management to any authorities, namely MACC and police, to investigate the misappropriation,” Nur Aida told trial judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah, mentioning that Najib was then chairperson of the board of advisors of 1MDB, which was fully owned by the Minister of Finance Incorporated (MOF Inc).
"Najib has never ordered any member of 1MDB's management to stay away from Jho Low," she added.
Yacht trips
Nur Aida also pointed out that Low had been together with Najib's family on three yacht holiday trips between 2009 and 2013.
The witness claimed that the 2009 holiday trip was aboard the yacht RM Elegance over the waters of southern France, where Low purportedly arranged a meeting with two representatives from Petrosaudi International (PSI), namely “Prince Turki” and “Tarek Obaid”.
She alleged that a 2010 holiday trip took place aboard the yacht, Golden Odyssey over the waters of Greece and Italy, which was arranged by Low.
Nur Aida claimed that another holiday trip happened aboard the Topaz yacht over the waters of southern France in 2013, which also saw the participation of United Arab Emirates (UAE) Prince “Sheikh Mansor” and Mohamed Badawy Al-Husseiny.
She alleged the third trip was also arranged by Low and the businessperson's alleged associate, Tan Kim Loong.
Further, Nur Aida claimed that in July 2015, Najib had asked then-Bank Negara governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz to issue a statement that it was not an offence for money to flow into the then-premier’s account, but the request was denied.
She noted that later on July 27 of the same year, Najib had ordered the disbandment of the multi-agency task force probing into the alleged transfer of 1MDB monies into the accused's account.
"Between Jan 5, 2016, and July 29, 2016, Najib as prime minister had taken several actions that affected the investigation," she testified before Sequerah.
She said that despite no profit being derived by 1MDB and the country, no urgent action was taken to rectify the problem.
Nur Aida added that on Aug 28, 2018, she handed the investigation papers to the Attorney-General's Chambers with a suggestion to charge Najib with four charges for abuse of power under Section 23 of the MACC Act 2009 and that the Attorney-General gave permission to charge Najib on Sept 19, 2018.
The 1MDB trial will resume on Monday next week.
Najib’s charges
Najib is on trial over four counts of abuse of power and 21 counts of money laundering involving RM2.27 billion from 1MDB.
For the four abuse of power charges, the former Pekan MP is alleged to have committed the offences at AmIslamic Bank Bhd’s Jalan Raja Chulan branch in Bukit Ceylon, Kuala Lumpur, between Feb 24, 2011, and Dec 19, 2014.
On the 21 money laundering counts, Najib is purported to have committed the offences at the same bank between March 22, 2013, and Aug 30, 2013. - Mkini
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