Zeti: I don't know Jho Low, he never visited or cooked pasta for me

1MDB TRIAL | Former Bank Negara governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz rubbished the allegation that 1MDB-linked fugitive Low Taek Jho (Jho Low) visited her and cooked pasta for the family.

The 46th prosecution witness also denied a claim by Najib Abdul Razak's lead defence counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah that she knew the businessperson at the centre of the RM2.28 billion 1MDB corruption case against the former prime minister.

"Ridiculous and preposterous, it never happened," Zeti (above, left) replied during cross-examination by Shafee over whether Low ever visited and cooked for her family at her house in Bukit Tunku, Kuala Lumpur.

Shafee's line of questioning harked back to his previous claim during last year's Kuala Lumpur High Court trial that Low had visited her.

When the lawyer today asked her if she knew Low, Zeti replied she knew about him but had no association with him.

Shafee: There was an occasion when you met the (then) PM (Najib) and you said that Low was very fond of giving you expensive presents and you said 'I accepted them but have since returned them'.

Zeti: I never received any gifts from anybody, including Low.

Shafee: Did you say this to the PM?

Zeti: I do not recall any discussion on gifts.

Shafee: Any discussion on Low with the PM?

Zeti: I do not recall discussing Low (with Najib back then).

Former premier Najib Abdul Razak

Zeti’s husband, Low studied at Wharton

The former Bank Negara governor rubbished Shafee's claim that Low was close to her family via being business partners with her husband, Tawfiq Ayman.

However, when Shafee made reference to media reports that Low had claimed to be from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania to insinuate that he knew Tawfiq, Zeti replied: “If that is the case, I take note.”

Earlier, she had testified that her husband was enrolled at Wharton in the 1970s.

When Shafee referred to media reports about former Goldman Sachs banker Tim Leissner's New York court testimony that Tawfiq took bribes from Low, Zeti answered: “It is all incorrect.”

Zeti’s husband Tawfiq Ayman

She pointed to her husband's statement - reported by Malaysiakini last year - that he had never taken bribes in his life and that he neither knew Leissner nor another former Goldman Sachs banker, Roger Ng.

Leissner was a prosecution witness in the New York criminal court case against Ng over his involvement in embezzling billions of dollars from 1MDB. Last year, the United States court sentenced Ng to 10 years in jail.

Proceedings before trial judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah resumes this afternoon.

Najib is facing four counts of abuse of power and 21 counts of money laundering involving RM2.28 billion from 1MDB, a sovereign wealth fund wholly owned by the Minister of Finance Incorporated (MOF Inc).

For the four abuse of power charges, the former Pekan MP was alleged to have committed the offences at AmIslamic Bank Bhd’s Jalan Raja Chulan branch in Bukit Ceylon, Kuala Lumpur, between Feb 24, 2011, and Dec 19, 2014.

On the 21 money laundering counts, the accused was purported to have committed the offences at the same bank between March 22, 2013, and Aug 30, 2013. - Mkini