1MDB’s top bosses agreed on RM10.6bil bid for power plants, says Loo

 

Former 1MDB general counsel Jasmine Loo said she prepared a shareholder’s resolution and handed it over to Jho Low to obtain Najib Razak’s approval.

KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court hearing former prime minister Najib Razak’s corruption trial was today told that 1MDB’s top management and board of directors had proposed that it bid RM10.6 billion to acquire power plants.

Former 1MDB general counsel Jasmine Loo said this happened after representatives of New York-based investment bank Goldman Sachs recommended the RM10.6 billion bid to acquire power plants held by Tanjong Energy Holdings Sdn Bhd following a series of meetings.

Loo, who was with 1MDB between May 2011 and November 2013, said she prepared a shareholder’s resolution and handed it over to Low Taek Jho, better known as Jho Low, to obtain Najib’s approval.

The 50th prosecution witness said Najib, who was then also the finance minister and chairman of 1MDB’s board of advisers, did not give any directive about the proposal to acquire the power plants.

However, the prosecution’s stand is that 1MDB’s investment decisions used an abnormal “top-down” approach as all decisions were made by Najib in his capacity as the finance minister and chairman of the company’s board of advisers.

In 2019, Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi, the ninth prosecution witness, had said Najib approved the proposal in February 2012. Shahrol also said 1MDB Energy Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary of 1MDB, was set up to buy the power plants.

He said Najib had signed a document in his capacity as the sole shareholder of 1MDB.

As finance minister, Najib was the sole shareholder of 1MDB, which was parked under the Minister of Finance Incorporated.

Najib is facing 25 charges for abuse of power and money laundering over alleged 1MDB funds amounting to RM2.28 billion deposited into his AmBank accounts between February 2011 and December 2014.

The trial before Justice Collin Lawrence Sequerah continues tomorrow. - FMT