Ex-board member 'sad' at being sued by 1MDB, court hears

 

Former 1MDB board member Ismee Ismail expressed sadness at being previously targeted in a civil action by the sovereign wealth fund.

The 13th prosecution witness testified this during today’s criminal trial of former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak’s RM2.28 billion corruption case.

He was one among many former directors who were targeted by a wave of lawsuits by 1MDB and its former subsidiary SRC International. Around 22 legal actions were launched against various personalities and entities who purportedly defrauded the two government-owned entities, whether knowingly or unknowingly.

However, Ismee (above) was later dropped as a defendant from a lawsuit by SRC.

In today’s criminal proceedings before trial judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah, Ismee testified that the MACC never offered him a deal whereby he had give evidence against Najib in return for no civil or criminal action to be brought against the witness.

During the cross-examination by defence counsel Hariharan Tara Singh, Ismee reiterated that the statement he gave to the MACC in the court of the investigation was the truth.

Hariharan then switched his line of questioning by bringing up the civil action that was previously filed against Ismee.

The defence counsel pointed out that the civil action amounted to the government suing the witness because 1MDB and SRC are entities owned by the Minister of Finance Incorporated.

Hariharan: Do you feel betrayed when the government of Malaysia, through 1MDB, filed a civil action against you?

Ismee: I would not use the word betrayed. I was very sad. It was more sad than betrayed.

The witness agreed with the defence counsel, though, that no criminal charges were levelled against him (Ismee) until today.

'I was worried about my safety'

When Hariharan asked whether Ismee ever felt pressure when asked to give a statement to the MACC, the witness disagreed, saying that he was not pressured but felt uncertain and worried about what was going on then.

Ismee did concede he was concerned about his safety as well as that of his family.

“When that thing happened (1MDB affair), I was worried about my safety and family’s safety.

“However, there were no promises (by the MACC) about (criminal) charges or civil suits,” Ismee testified.

Proceedings will resume on Jan 5 next year. Najib was present in court today.

Najib is facing four charges 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.

Besides being a former premier, the accused also used to be finance minister and chairperson of 1MDB's board of advisers.

The prosecution contended that fugitive businessperson Low Taek Jho, or better known as Jho Low, on the behest of Najib, had acted with several other 1MDB personnel to misappropriate billions of ringgit of funds from the sovereign wealth fund and used a circuitous and complex financial route to transfer part of the funds to the then premier's personal bank account.

However, the defence team contended that Najib had no knowledge about wrongdoing at 1MDB and that Low and several other members of the sovereign wealth fund entirely masterminded the affair. - Mkini