Ex-banker tells court he only met Jho Low once

 

An ex-banker said Jho Low did not talk much at a casual meeting with AmBank officers and representatives from the Terengganu Investment Authority. (Bloomberg pic)

KUALA LUMPUR: A former managing director of AmInvestment Bank Bhd told the Najib Razak 1MDB trial that he only met fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho once, 13 years ago.

Kok Tuck Cheong said his then colleague Chan Wan Seong (AmBank’s former director, capital market department) introduced him to Low, better known as Jho Low, at a casual lunch meeting in Mandarin Oriental Hotel.

Kok told the High Court that other than AmBank officers, representatives from the Terengganu Investment Authority (TIA) were also present at the lunch meeting.

“He (Low) did not talk much,” he said, when asked by lawyer Shafee Abdullah about Low’s presence.

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Shafee: Did he (Low) pay the bill?

Kok: I don’t think so. I certainly did not pay the bill.

The former banker told the court that no serious discussions were held during the lunch meeting, stressing that “it was just a casual lunch”.

Kok testified that he heard from his subordinates that TIA wanted AmBank to suspend the issuance of RM5 billion in Islamic bonds the same year (2009).

“I was only informed (about the intention to suspend) after the AmBank team resolved the issue,” he added.

The court had heard testimonies from former 1MDB CEO Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi and former director Ismee Ismail that Terengganu’s Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin had ordered them to suspend the issuance of Islamic medium-term notes used to secure a RM5 billion loan for TIA.

Ismee said Sultan Mizan told them to halt the issuance of the bonds “because my interest and concern are for the well-being of my state and my people”.

He added that he and Shahrol obeyed Sultan Mizan’s orders and signed the documents to suspend the issuance of the bonds. However, Ismee said, he and Shahrol met Najib the same day and the former prime minister wanted the RM5 billion bond issuance to proceed as planned.

The hearing continues before justice Collin Lawrence Sequerah.

Najib is standing trial on 25 counts of money laundering and abuse of power over the alleged misuse of 1MDB funds amounting to RM2.28 billion deposited into his AmBank accounts between February 2011 and December 2014. - FMT