KUALA LUMPUR: A former AmBank manager told the High Court in Najib Razak’s 1MDB trial that she first met fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho, or Jho Low, in 2007, two years before the Terengganu Investment Authority (TIA) was set up.
Joanna Yu, a former relationship manager at the bank, said she was assigned to handle the loan for Majestic Masterpiece Sdn Bhd, a company controlled by Low.
She said Majestic Masterpiece wanted to buy shares in two companies – Loh & Loh Corporation Bhd and Putrajaya Perdana Bhd.
“Not long after the Majestic Masterpiece loan was approved and the acquisitions of the two companies were completed, Low informed the bank that his team was looking to set up a sovereign wealth fund to raise funds to develop Terengganu,” Yu said.
“Low told us that Tengku Rahimah (the sultan of Terengganu’s sister) was one of the directors in Loh & Loh. They wanted to develop the state.”
She said Low wanted AmBank to submit a bond issuance proposal for this sovereign wealth fund.
‘TIA wanted RM10 billion, 30-year bond’
Yu said AmBank and TIA officials held a meeting to discuss the issuance of the bond to secure the loan for the company.
She said her then colleagues, Chan Wan Seong, Teng Chean Choy and Seohan Soo, attended the meeting while 1MDB’s former CEO, Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi, and its former executive director, Tang Keng Chee, as well as Low, represented TIA.
“We were asked to provide a proposal for a RM10 billion bond issuance with a 30-year duration,” Yu said.
“My colleagues from (AmBank’s) debt capital market division and the Treasury said there may not be enough investors for the size of RM10 billion, and that a 30-year bond tenure in Malaysia was also unprecedented.
“There were several suggestions being discussed, and one of them was to obtain a government guarantee for the bond, to reduce the size of the bond issue, and also to shorten the tenure of the bond.
“In the end, they (TIA) agreed to a reduced RM5 billion government guaranteed bond for 30 years.”
Asked by ad hoc prosecutor Gopal Sri Ram if she was aware that TIA wanted to suspend the RM5 billion bond issuance some time in May 2009, Yu said she knew about it.
“I was informed by the capital markets division about it,” she said.
She said TIA later changed its mind and asked AmBank to proceed with the RM5 billion bond.
Najib is standing trial for 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.
The hearing before justice Collin Lawrence Sequerah continues. - FMT
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