1MDB TRIAL | Deloitte was the only one of the big four international auditing firms willing to audit 1MDB in 2013, the Kuala Lumpur High Court heard this afternoon.
The Malaysian sovereign wealth fund’s former chief financial officer Azmi Tahir testified that the firm was the only one willing to be hired to audit 1MDB, which had become “famous” in the news.
The 12th prosecution witness was testifying during the Kuala Lumpur High Court trial of the RM2.28 billion 1MDB corruption case against former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak.
Earlier, during proceedings before trial judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah today, Azmi testified that one of the big international auditing firms, KPMG was adamant about meeting Najib over suspicious 1MDB overseas investments., KPMG was dropped as auditor of 1MDB and Deloitte was then brought on board to audit the fund’s 2013 financial statement.
Besides KPMG and Deloitte, the other two of the big four audit firms are Earnst & Young (EY) and PricewaterhouseCoopers(PwC).
KPMG replaced after ‘impasse’
During cross-examination by defence counsel Wan Aizuddin Wan Mohammed this afternoon, Azmi said that then 1MDB CEO Mohd Hazem Abd Rahman directed him to look for another auditor.
Azmi said it was due to the impasse between KPMG and 1MDB over the audit issue.
The former CFO said they replaced KPMG with Deloitte as other auditing firms then were not willing to act for 1MDB due to the negative news swirling around the fund then.
Wan Aizuddin: Did Jho Low (businessperson Low Taek Jho) gave input or interfered in the selection of the (new) auditor?
Azmi: No. We were already scrambling on our own to find an auditor (after the impasse with KPMG), as it (2013 audit of 1MDB) was already overdue. If the new auditor were to come on board and the amount of work needed to be done, I cannot imagine the immense pressure. 1MDB was already famous in the news, some auditors may not want to act for us.
In reply to a question about whether it was Najib or 1MDB’s management the one who decided to change the auditor, Azmi answered he did not know.
The witness explained his uncertainty as it could still be a direction from “upstairs”. However, he did not clarify what he meant by the word.
The prosecution contended that Low’s involvement in wrongdoing at 1MDB was on the authority of Najib.
The defence team claimed that the accused had no knowledge of wrongdoing and that the whole embezzlement scheme was solely masterminded by Low and several members of the fund’s management team.
Proceedings before Sequerah will resume tomorrow, with KPMG management partner Johan Idris expected to take the witness stand for the prosecution.
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 former premier, he was also finance minister and chairperson of 1MDB’s board of advisers.
1MDB is fully owned by the Minister of Finance Incorporated (MoF Inc). - Mkini
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.