Jho Low swindled 1MDB for years before Najib’s account opened - defence

 

Low Taek Jho was already swindling billions of ringgit out of 1MDB long before Najib Abdul Razak even opened a related bank account, the Kuala Lumpur High Court heard today.

Defence counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah made this contention during his cross-examination of 1MDB’s former board member Ismee Ismail.

During the trial of the RM2.28 billion 1MDB corruption case before judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah, the lawyer relied on postings from online blog Malaysia Today to show that Low, who is also known as Jho Low, had allegedly long been defrauding the sovereign fund without Najib’s knowledge.

Shafee referred to allegations that Low allegedly duped 1MDB’s forerunner, Terengganu Investment Authority (TIA), in 2009, via the flipping of the RM5 billion Islamic Medium-Term Note (IMTN) bonds then.

Previously established in 2008 by the Terengganu state government via Menteri Besar Incorporated, TIA was later fully transferred to the federal government via the Minister of Finance Incorporated in July 2009. TIA was then renamed as 1MDB.

The High Court previously heard prosecution witness testimony that Low was an advisor to TIA.

Ismee, the 13th prosecution witness, today agreed with Shafee’s contention that no proceeds from the IMTN bond flipped by Low ever went into Najib’s bank account.

‘Najib had no knowledge’

The lawyer also referred to another allegation that Low paid bribes to the family of former Bank Negara governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz between 2008 and 2009.

Shafee made this allegation by referring to excerpts of an alleged MACC report over Zeti’s family bank account carried on Malaysia Today.

“We (Najib’s defence) wish to establish that the money (allegedly from 1MDB) that did go into Najib’s account (between Feb 2011 and Aug 2013 as alleged by the 25 charges against the accused) was only because of the arrangement of the donation (allegedly from Arab royalty).

“Why it (money) came in (Najib’s bank account) is for other people to answer. My client was under the impression it was a donation from the Saudi Ministry of Finance.

“(Najib’s) AmBank account (which allegedly received billions of ringgit in 1MDB funds) was opened in 2011, so it had nothing to do with IMTN,” Shafee told the court as Najib looked on from the dock.

The former premier's defence team has always contended that the accused had no knowledge of wrongdoing at 1MDB and that he was under the impression that the monies were a donation from Arab royalty.

Shafee further contended that Low had already been cheating 1MDB out of its funds as far back as its TIA days in 2009.

Lead defence counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah

In March last year, Najib’s legal team filed the application to obtain the banking information of Zeti’s family to bolster his case against the RM2.28 billion graft case.

The former premier’s defence team claimed that the family received monies from Low.

However, in July last year, trial judge Sequerah dismissed the discovery application. The former premier, however, has a pending appeal on this before the Court of Appeal in May this year.

Zeti had denied the allegations as far back as December 2020.

In February this year, Malaysiakini reported Zeti’s husband Tawfiq Ayman as saying he had never received any bribes in his whole life.

The trial before Sequerah is set to resume this afternoon.

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.

Besides being prime minister at the time of the alleged offence, Najib was also finance minister and chairperson of 1MDB's board of advisers.

The prosecution was conducted by deputy public prosecutor Mohamad Mustaffa P Kunyalam. - Mkini