1MDB TRIAL | Key prosecution witness Jasmine Loo testified that she got in trouble with the Myanmar military junta when she tried to enter the country with an unstamped passport in 2019.
However, the former 1MDB general counsel told the Kuala Lumpur High Court today that fugitive businessperson Low Taek Jho (Jho Low) dealt with the Myanmar authorities to give her a fake passport and pass off as a citizen of that country until last year when she returned to Malaysia.
Loo revealed this during the RM2.27 billion 1MDB corruption trial against former prime minister and finance minister Najib Abdul Razak.
Previously, the 50-year-old close associate of Low testified leaving Malaysia for Thailand just before the 14th general election in May 2018, and that the businessperson threatened her with a “living hell” if she returned to Malaysia.
Loo also previously testified in little detail that she travelled to Cambodia and Myanmar before her lawyers negotiated with Malaysian authorities for her return in July last year.
As judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah presided over the criminal trial this morning, Loo said that when she tried to cross into Myanmar in 2019, she got in trouble with the border authorities when her passport was not stamped.
She claimed that she was then "escorted" by the Myanmar junta, but said this did not amount to an arrest.
While under cross-examination by Najib’s lead defence counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, Loo claimed that Low had then dealt with the Myanmar authorities to give her a fake passport that allowed her to pass off as a Myanmar citizen and stay in the nation’s capital, Yangon.
She explained that thanks to the passport, she was free to move around within Myanmar and showed the document whenever stopped by junta officers, but she could not leave the country until last year.
Shafee: How did you get the (fake) passport?
Loo: It was given to me in Myanmar (by junta officers). Low must have arranged it.
Shafee: You know that Low arranged it. Why are you trying to protect him?
Loo: Not true (over allegation she is trying to protect Low).
Shafee: You and Low are like Bonnie and Clyde.
Loo: Not true.
Shafee: What was the (purpose of the) fraudulent passport?
Loo: For me to continue staying (in Myanmar), so if anyone (junta officers) asked me when I was walking around, I was supposed to show I was a Myanmar citizen.
Shafee: To show you as a Myanmar citizen illegally?
Loo: Yes.
Shafee: Low must have arranged it?
Loo: Yes.
The former lawyer explained that her lawyers reached out to the Malaysian authorities through its embassy in Myanmar in 2021 to arrange for her safe return to Malaysia, resulting in her return home last year.
She added that Low tried to arrange for her entry into Myanmar in 2019 before she ran into trouble with the military junta there.
When Shafee asked what happened to the fake passport, Loo claimed she did not know as she only had her Malaysian passport when she entered the Malaysian embassy for her return to Malaysia last year.
The witness explained that her lawyers negotiated with then attorney-general Idrus Harun for her safe passage to Malaysia, with the understanding that she would cooperate with Malaysian authorities in their investigation.
She explained that she sought a guarantee for her secure safe passage to Malaysia because she did not wish to be left in Myanmar and face possible persecution and get in further trouble with the junta.
Loo added that she also sought the Malaysian prosecutors to withdraw several criminal charges levied against her in absentia in late 2018 when she was already on the lam overseas.
However, when Shafee asked whether the Malaysian authorities have withdrawn these criminal charges, Loo declined to comment.
Charge in absentia
In 2018 before the Malaysian criminal court, Loo was charged in absentia under Section 179 of the Capital Markets and Services Act 2007 for commissioning and abetment to misappropriate US$2.7 billion from three 1MDB bonds underwritten by investment bank Goldman Sachs.
She was also charged in absentia under Section 4(1)(a) of the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001 over the alleged laundering of US$5.99 million of alleged unlawful proceeds, received into the account of River Dee International SA (BVI) in Falcon Private Bank AG in Zurich.
Najib is on trial for 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.
The 1MDB is fully owned by the Minister of Finance Incorporated (MOF Inc).
Najib was the chairperson of 1MDB’s board of advisers. - Mkini
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