NAJIB TRIAL | The Terengganu government had allowed the federal government to take over the Terengganu Investment Authority (TIA) and turn it into 1MDB barely four months after the company was established, the Kuala Lumpur High Court heard today.
According to TIA's then CEO Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi, the company was incorporated in February 2009, but trouble with the palace led to a transfer of ownership from the Terengganu Menteri Besar Incorporated to the Minister of Finance (Incorporated) in July that year.
Trouble began on May 22, 2009 when the TIA board issued a circular of a directors resolution which stated that the RM5 billion bond issuance by the company was to be suspended.
The directors also ordered that Shahrol and all other directors were barred from handling the bond issuance.
Later that afternoon, Shahrol said he and fellow TIA director Ismee Ismail were summoned by Terengganu ruler Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin to Istana Terengganu in Kuala Lumpur.
There, an incensed Sultan Mizan (above) had decreed: "Please sign this resolution. You can read it if you want".
The document was authored by Tengku Rahimah Puteri Sultan Mahmud, the elder sister of the Terengganu ruler, a TIA director and a prominent corporate figure.
This document contained the TIA directors' resolution which ordered Aminvestment Bank Bhd to suspend the bond issuance until several conditions were met.
"I was shocked because Jho Low had told me that Sultan Mizan had no objections to the bond issuance.
"This was the first time I am hearing from Sultan Mizan that Terengganu had such conditions because previously (I was under the impression) Low - the adviser to and facilitator between Sultan Mizan and Najib Abdul Razak - never informed me of those conditions.
"Ismee and I signed the resolution and were ordered to leave. We were not given a chance to explain that the bond issuance had already been executed," said Shahrol.
He also told the court that Sultan Mizan had used the term "unsavoury character" during their brief meeting, but he was unsure who the ruler was referring to.
Later that evening, Shahrol was instructed to brief Low and Najib, the prime minister at the time, at the latter's Kuala Lumpur residence.
"Najib asked if I knew why Sultan Mizan was angry and I said I didn't know. He asked if I had a copy of the directors' resolution, which I didn't.
"Following this, Najib said, to the effect of, 'You go ahead. I will talk to Tuanku'," said Shahrol.
By May 27, Ambank wrote to Shahrol in response to a letter by Tengku Rahimah to inform TIA that the bond issuance could not be suspended because it would affect the bond market. On that same day, Tengku Rahimah resigned as a TIA director.
In the month of June, the ownership of TIA was swiftly transferred to the Finance Ministry and by July 19, the company was to be known as "1Malaysia Development Bhd". - Mkini
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