Former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak never halted the Parliamentary Select Committee's (PSC) investigation into the 1MDB affair, the sovereign wealth fund's ex-chief financial officer told the High Court.
Witness Azmi Tahir agreed to this during today's RM2.28 billion 1MDB corruption trial against Najib.
During proceedings before judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah, Azmi was replying to cross-examination by lead defence counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah.
Shafee earlier grilled Azmi over the latter's alleged role in hoodwinking auditors Deloitte and KPMG over the financial status of 1MDB.
The lawyer made reference to the PSC report dated April 7, 2016, in relation to alleged wrongdoing at 1MDB, which recommended that action be taken against the Malaysian sovereign wealth fund's management team.
Besides Azmi, the other members of 1MDB management included its former CEO Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi.
Shafee: The significance of the date (April 7, 2016) is that the then finance minister and prime minister was Najib. When this (PSC) finding was made, he (Najib) did not stop the PSC, and it (PSC) found the (1MDB) management had misled the (1MDB) board. Did Najib stop the PSC from investigating?
Azmi: No, and my contract (as CFO with 1MDB) was renewed. It did not look like I did anything wrong at the time. If you are saying (1MDB) management did something wrong, but my contract was renewed, then it showed I did not do anything wrong.
At this juncture, Shafee countered that if his client was behind any wrongdoing at 1MDB, then Najib would not have stopped the PSC probe. Azmi agreed with the contention.
Azmi was 1MDB’s CFO from 2012 to 2017.
'I never mislead auditors over 1MDB'
Meanwhile, during today's proceedings before Sequerah, Azmi denied being in cahoots with wanted businessperson Low Taek Jho, also known as Jho Low, to mislead auditors who audited 1MDB.
The witness made this denial to Shafee's contention that the former had misled international auditors KPMG and Deloitte in their financial audit of 1MDB.
Shafee was questioning Azmi over the latters' claim that auditors should answer over any wrongdoing discovered at 1MDB.
The defence counsel was commenting over the fact that only Najib was seemingly charged over the 1MDB affair in Malaysia while the fund's former management team members like Azmi avoided prosecution.
"I did not mislead (the auditors) nor was in cahoots (with Low)," Azmi testified.
Back in March last year, Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz announced that the Malaysian government and Deloitte PLT have agreed to an RM324 million settlement to resolve all claims related to the auditing of accounts of 1MDB and its former subsidiary SRC International Sdn Bhd.
The settlement was over the audit of 1MDB and SRC accounts for the period of 2011 to 2014.
On Jan 13 this year, the ministry announced that the government has received the full settlement amount from Deloitte.
The 1MDB trial before Sequerah is set to resume on Thursday this week.
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).
Besides being a former prime minister, Najib also used to be finance minister and chairperson of 1MDB's board of advisers.
The prosecution contended that Low, at the behest of Najib, had acted with several other 1MDB personnel to misappropriate billions of ringgit in funds from the sovereign wealth fund and, via a circuitous and complex financial route, to transfer part of the funds to Najib's account.
However, the defence team contended that Najib had no knowledge about wrongdoing at 1MDB and that the whole affair was masterminded completely by Low and several other members of the sovereign wealth fund. - Mkini
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