1MDB TRIAL | Former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak’s defence witness testified that the 1MDB board of directors did not greenlight the transfer of US$700 million of its funds to Good Star Limited.
Retired police investigating officer R Rajagopal told the High Court in Putrajaya today about the outcome of his investigation into the diversion of 1MDB’s money to the offshore entity linked to fugitive businessperson Low Taek Jho (Jho Low).
The witness was replying to defence counsel Wan Azwan Aiman Wan Fakhruddin’s examination-in-chief during Najib’s RM2.27 billion 1MDB abuse of power and money laundering trial.
“There was no directive from the (1MDB) board of directors for the US$700 million to enter Good Star’s account.
“My investigation showed that the remittance of the money into Good Star went against the board’s decision,” testified Rajagopal.
In late 2009, after 1MDB entered into a US$1 billion joint venture with Petrosaudi International Limited (PSI), US$700 million of that amount was diverted to Good Star.
In the course of the trial since 2019, oral and documentary evidence were tendered in court to show that the offshore entity at one point was passed off as a subsidiary of PSI.
Najib’s defence team contended that the ex-finance minister had no knowledge or involvement in wrongdoing at 1MDB and that embezzlement there was solely masterminded by Low and members of its management.
The trial before judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah resumes on March 24.
Prima facie established
On Oct 30 last year, the High Court ordered Najib to enter his defence over four abuses of power and 21 money laundering charges involving RM2.27 billion from 1MDB.
Sequerah ruled that the prosecution had succeeded in establishing a prima facie (answerable) case against Najib due to the strength of some 50 witness testimonies.
These prosecution witnesses included former members of 1MDB management, including former CEO Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi, former chief financial officer Azmi Tahir, and former general counsel Jasmine Loo.
Between early December last year and late January this year, Najib spent 26 days on the witness stand trying to raise reasonable doubt in the prosecution’s case.
The former Pekan MP also relied on the defence that he was promised a donation by the late Saudi monarch King Abdullah during a meeting in Riyadh in 2010.
Deputy public prosecutor Ahmad Akram Gharib prosecuted. - Mkini
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