Friday 29 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 25): The taking over of Terengganu Investment Authority Bhd (TIA) by 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) was said to cover up the misdeeds of fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho (Jho Low) during the May 2009 issuance of the RM5 billion Islamic medium term notes, according to ninth prosecution witness, Datuk Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi.

Shahrol, formerly the chief executive officer of TIA and 1MDB, said this during his testimony today, when he recalled the sequence of events leading to the exemption of 1MDB from being audited by the National Audit Department.

“Based on what I know now, I am sure that the takeover of TIA by 1MDB on an 'as is where is' basis was planned by Jho Low with the blessing of Datuk Seri Najib to hide the misdeeds during the issuance of the RM5 billion IMTN bonds with government guarantee in May 2009,” said the witness during his testimony today.

During questioning by appointed senior deputy public prosecutor Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram, he said the audit would have unearthed that US$700 million out of the US$1 billion raised from the bonds that was intended for the 1MDB-PetroSaudi JV went instead to Good Star Ltd's bank account.

PetroSaudi had claimed that Good Star was its subsidiary company, although it was later shown that the company was owned and controlled by Jho Low.

Besides that, the audit would also have exposed the conflict between Terengganu and the Federal Government over TIA, which came to a head when the team at TIA also bulldozed through the issuance of the IMTN notes, despite opposition from the State's royalty.

In his testimony yesterday, Shahrol told the court of his meeting with Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin and Tengku Datuk Rahimah Sultan Mahmud, during which the witness was told to sign a director’s resolution for the suspension of the IMTN issuance.

He said he was not aware of the reason behind Tengku Rahimah’s intention to suspend the issuance of the bonds, adding that Mizan seemed angry and mentioned an “unsavoury character”, although Shahrol was not sure who he was referring to.

Following the meeting, he had met with Low and Najib. The former premier asked him if he knew the reason behind Mizan’s anger and whether he received a copy of the resolution

“[Najib] said something along the lines of ‘you go ahead, I will talk to Tuanku’. I saw that as an order and a mandate from the Prime Minister and Minister of Finance to carry on with the IMTN because he was the Minister that was responsible for the Government guarantee,” said Shahrol.

Najib is currently facing 25 counts of money laundering and abuse of power for alleged misappropriation of billions of ringgit in 1MDB funds.

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