Ex-CEO: Najib spoke on Jho Low's phone to doubtful 1MDB chair

NAJIB TRIAL | Then prime minister Najib Abdul Razak had allegedly reached out to Mohd Bakke Salleh on fugitive businessperson Low Taek Jho's mobile phone after the 1MDB chairperson at the time raised doubts about a joint-venture deal with PetroSaudi International (PSI).

This was according to former 1MDB CEO Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi's 273-page witness statement which he read out during Najib's 1MDB graft trial at the Kuala Lumpur High Court today.

The PSI joint-venture would eventually see at least US$1.83 billion of 1MDB funds misappropriated.

Shahrol testified that the incident took place on Sept 26, 2009, moments before the 1MDB board of directors was to convene a meeting to decide on the PSI joint-venture.

He said before the meeting started, he saw Low, better known as Jho Low, on his phone and subsequently passed the phone to Bakke, who was to chair the board meeting.

"Bakke closed part of Low's phone with his hand and told all of us it was 'PM' which meant the prime minister.

"I understood this to mean that Najib wanted to speak with him. I saw Bakke standing up to take the call in the meeting room," he said.

Shahrol claimed that after the call, Bakke (photo) informed the board that the PSI joint-venture was a government-to-government initiative, and Najib wanted it to be expedited.

Shahrol said before the call, he had informed Low that the latter had to do something to convince the board as Bakke and another board member, Azlan Mohd Zainol, raised doubts about the joint-venture structure at an earlier meeting on Sept 18, 2009.

"To my knowledge, the call was made by the prime minister to the 1MDB board chairperson, who is Bakke, after Bakke and Azlan appeared unconvinced about the investment when the PSI joint-venture project paper was presented by (1MDB business development executive director) Casey Tang on Sept 18, 2009.

"They were not confident whether the investment truly involves a company owned by the Saudi Arabia government or not. They also questioned the 60-40 percent shareholding in the joint-venture in which PSI will contribute to the 60 percent using its oil assets.

"The board of directors wanted a deeper understanding of the assets through an independent valuation or site visit. Bakke even wanted a PSI representative to personally present the JV to the board," he said.

Shahrol said following Najib's call on Sept 26, the board agreed to the joint-venture and the 1MDB CEO then proceeded to make it happen.

[More to follow] - Mkini