1MDB board used to make transactions ‘appear legitimate’: Ex-director

 

1MDB TRIAL | Ismee Ismail testified that 1MDB’s board of directors were used to make transactions involving the sovereign wealth fund "appear legitimate".

The former 1MDB board member told this in the Kuala Lumpur High Court today during the corruption trial against former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak involving RM2.28 billion of the sovereign wealth fund’s monies.

The 13th prosecution witness was answering during examination-in-chief by deputy public prosecutor Gopal Sri Ram.

Former federal court judge Sri Ram was asking Ismee whether the 1MDB board were a bunch of toothless tigers for allegedly failing to properly advise Najib, adding that this was the type of questions that the accused’s legal team would ask the witness during cross-examination in later trial dates.

During proceedings before trial judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah, Ismee claimed that the board still questioned 1MDB’s management about the economics and viability of the transactions involving the sovereign wealth fund.

The witness claimed that even though businessperson Low Taek Jho (or Jho Low) sent various emails to him and other board members, he claimed that they did not take instructions from the key figure in the 1MDB scandal.

Entire affair

Ismee (above) contended that over the time since he stepped down from 1MDB board in 2016 and throughout the ensuing investigation and court cases, he learned more and more about the entire affair.

The witness has previously testified in a separate RM42 million SRC International corruption trial against Najib, in which the Kuala Lumpur High Court convicted and sentenced the former prime minister.

Najib’s appeal against the SRC ruling is still pending decision before the Court of Appeal.

SRC was a subsidiary of 1MDB, which was later fully-owned by the Minister of Finance Incorporated (MOF Inc). MOF Inc also fully owned 1MDB.

Besides being former premier, Najib also used to be finance minister and chairperson of 1MDB’s board of advisers.

“After going through all this, my view now is that the board was being used to make all initiatives and transactions appear legitimate, to the extent of misleading information given to us, no information given to us, even misleading information given to the board,” Ismee testified.

Earlier, Ismee told the court that he stepped down as 1MDB board member due to concerns about decisions for the future of the sovereign wealth fund.

Najib is on trial for four counts of abuse of power and 21 counts of money laundering involving RM2.28 billion of 1MDB’s funds.

1MDB is fully owned by the Minister of Finance Incorporated (MOF Inc). - Mkini