1MDB TRIAL | 1MDB’s former general-counsel Jasmine Loo has conceded that she was unsure about the truthfulness behind fugitive businessperson Low Taek Jho’s (Jho Low) constant name-dropping.
The key prosecution witness was testifying during today’s RM2.27 billion 1MDB corruption trial against former prime minister and finance minister Najib Abdul Razak at the Kuala Lumpur High Court.
She joins two other 1MDB prosecution witnesses, former AmBank relationship manager Joanna Yu and former Bank Negara governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz, in testifying over Low’s tendency to name-drop big names to secure international-level agreements linked to the embezzlement of billions of ringgit out of the troubled sovereign wealth fund.
During cross-examination by Najib’s defence counsel Tania Scivetti, Loo (above, right) was asked whether Low had a tendency to make up stories to bamboozle influential people into dubious deals worth billions.
Scivetti: Low has a tendency to make up stories and name-drop?
Loo: Making up (a) story I do not know, but name-dropping yes.
Scivetti: In terms of name-dropping, do you agree that Low is fond of doing such actions?
Loo: Yes, but I do not know the strength of it whether true or not.
When Scivetti asked whether Loo knew when Low was ever telling the truth, the close associate of the fugitive businessperson admitted she was not sure.
Charge dropped for testimony against Najib?
During the trial before judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah, Loo rubbished claims that a criminal charge against her was dropped so she could testify against Najib.
The 50-year-old was responding to Scivetti’s allegation that the witness returned to Malaysia last year due to the authorities agreeing to withdraw the charge against her linked to 1MDB’s US$6.5 billion bond deal.
Scivetti: The charge against you under Section 179(c) of the Capital Markets and Services Act 2007 has not been pursued because you agreed to give evidence against Najib in favour of the prosecution?
Loo: I disagree.
Loo however conceded that when she returned to Malaysia from Thailand in July last year after having been away for five years, she had “responded” to authorities over the charge.
However, it is not clear whether the charge against her is still pending in court or has been withdrawn.
Just after Loo left Malaysia in 2018, authorities in the later part of the same year charged her in absentia over the US$6.5 billion 1MDB bond deal involving US-based investment bank Goldman Sachs International and its Asian arm.
In a media statement in December 2018, then attorney-general Tommy Thomas announced that several others were also charged in absentia, including Low and Goldman Sachs’ former employees Tim Leissner and Roger Ng.
“The charges arise from the commission and abetment of false or misleading statements by all the accused in order to dishonestly misappropriate US$2.7 billion from the proceeds of three bonds issued by subsidiaries of 1MDB, which were arranged and underwritten by Goldman Sachs.
“...Leissner and Ng of Goldman Sachs conspired with Low, Loo, and others to bribe Malaysian public officials in order to procure the selection, involvement, and participation of Goldman Sachs in these bond issuances,” Thomas said.
The 1MDB trial before Sequerah resumes tomorrow morning.
Najib is on trial for four counts of abuse of power and 21 counts of money laundering involving RM2.27 billion from 1MDB.
For the four abuse of power charges, the former Pekan MP is 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 former finance minister is purported to have committed the offences at the same bank between March 22, 2013, and Aug 30, 2013. - Mkini
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.