KUALA LUMPUR (March 14): Lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah took aim at the management and board of 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB), saying they should face charges for their roles in the 1MDB scandal and not his client, former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.
At the 1MDB-Tanore trial on Monday, Shafee who was cross-examining former 1MDB chief financial officer (CFO) Azmi Tahir, suggested to him that the 2016 Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report recommended that "former chief executive officer of 1MDB, Datuk Shahrol Azral, needs to take responsibility for those weaknesses and blunders" that happened in 1MDB.
He also said the PAC had suggested that law enforcement agencies be required to carry out further investigation into Shahrol and "others involved from the management of 1MDB".
In defending Najib, Shafee further said that if Najib had been truly behind the 1MDB scandal, he would have used his influence as prime minister and finance minister at the time to stop the PAC investigation.
Azmi agreed that the PAC had suggested for investigation to be carried out into 1MDB's management, and that he himself was investigated after the PAC report came out.
Shafee: The prime minister (Najib) didn't stop this investigation from being carried out?
Azmi: No, he did not.
Shafee went on to cite the ongoing trial against ex-Goldman Sachs banker Roger Ng in New York, where his former colleague Tim Leissner, the US government's star witness, testified that fugitive financier Low Taek Jho or Jho Low had made a chart with names of 1MDB officials who were also to be bribed as part of the multibillion-dollar scam.
It should be noted that Leissner did not mention any names of 1MDB management, but said the names at the very top of the chart were Najib and his wife, Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor.
Shafee questioned Azmi about these bribes to 1MDB's management, to which the former CFO denied having received any kickbacks.
He then asked Azmi about Leissner's revelation, but Justice Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah disallowed the question, saying Shafee should not ask Azmi about it as the latter might not know what had transpired in the trial in the US.
Shafee argued that Leissner had admitted to bribing 1MDB officials, hence the lawyer said he had to ask Azmi who these individuals were so that the witness could "disabuse" himself from allegations that he was one of the 1MDB officials who were bribed.
Shafee subsequently moved on to another line of questioning.
Previously, Azmi denied he had taken any bribes from Leissner to appoint Goldman Sachs as the lead arranger for the issuance of US$1.75 billion worth of 1MDB bonds in 2012 to finance the acquisition of Genting Sanyen Power Sdn Bhd.
In the 1MDB-Tanore trial, Najib is facing four counts of abuse of power and enriching himself with RM2.3 billion from 1MDB, as well as 21 counts of money laundering of the same amount. The former prime minister faces up to 20 years in jail if convicted.
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