KUALA LUMPUR, May 19 — Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s lawyer today tried to ask a former chief of 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) if the signatures of two former company officials in letters authorising the bank transfers of millions of US dollars from a subsidiary were "cut and paste”.

This took place during the ongoing trial of former prime minister Najib’s abuse of power and money laundering trial in relation to more than RM2 billion of 1MDB funds.

Najib’s lawyer Wan Aizuddin Wan Mohammed asked 1MDB ex-CEO Mohd Hazem Abd Rahman to compare the signatures on 18 letters of instructions to authorise such bank transfers out of 1MDB Global Investments Limited’s (1MDB GIL) bank account.

Mohd Hazem, who is the 10th prosecution witness in Najib’s 1MDB trial, confirmed that these documents were not shown to him while he was 1MDB GIL director in the past.

Shown one of these documents that authorised Swiss bank BSI to transfer over US$156 million out of 1MDB GIL’s BSI bank account to Cistenique Investment Fund on March 20, 2013, Mohd Hazem said he was never told by 1MDB’s then chief financial officer Azmi Tahir and then deputy chief financial officer Terence Geh of the purported investment that this fund transfer was for.

He confirmed, however, that the two signatures on the instruction letter to BSI were the signatures of Azmi and Terence, as he was familiar with their signatures.

(The three of them — Mohd Hazem, Azmi, Terence — were the authorised signatories of 1MDB GIL’s BSI account, where over US$2.7 billion was deposited on March 19, 2013 after a US$3 billion bond issued by 1MDB GIL for a fundraising exercise.)

Wan Aizuddin then asked Mohd Hazem to compare Azmi’s and Terence’s signatures on all 18 documents: "If you look at all those transfer instructions I showed you, you compare all the signatures on them, can you confirm that all these signatures are identical — the shape, the curve, the size is all identical?”

Mohd Hazem then asked: "You are asking me to say all the signatures are exactly the same?”

At this point, deputy public prosecutor Ahmad Akram Gharib objected by noting that Mohd Hazem is not a "handwriting expert”, while Wan Aizuddin said he was merely asking the witness to "compare” the signatures.

High Court judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah also suggested that the way the question was worded may not be suited for Mohd Hazem, as he was merely familiar with the signatures as he was used to seeing them.

"He’s already said he’s familiar with the signature, asking him to compare may take him out of the realms of someone who is familiar, and place him in a position of expert. Asking him about the curve, the way the handwriting appears, the way the signature is signed, is crafted, maybe that’s beyond his expertise,” the judge said.

Wan Aizuddin then rephrased his question, asking: "I’m suggesting to you based on your observation on all these documents, it appears that both signatures on all these instructions appear to be a cut and paste situation.”

Mohd Hazem then said he could not answer this question, while the judge suggested that Najib’s lawyers put this in their submissions and asked how it would be possible to tell if the signatures were "cut and paste”.

Mohd Hazem then said he could not tell if the signatures were "cut and paste”, but said that he could tell that the signatures were obviously not identical on two of the documents even if he is not an expert.

Citing his personal observation on just two of the documents, Mohd Hazem said Terence’s signature was "obviously not the same”, noting that it was "quite apparent for anyone to notice”.

Wan Aizuddin then sought to ask if Mohd Hazem noticed dotted features around the signatures on the documents, but the judge again said that he did not think Mohd Hazem was in a position to answer such questions and with Wan Aizuddin then dropping this line of questioning and opting to possibly pursue it in submissions.

The letters giving instructions for fund transfers out of 1MDB GIL — and carrying Azmi’s and Terence’s signatures — had included mentions of three funds named Cistenique, Devonshire Funds Ltd and Enterprise Emerging Markets Fund (EEMF), but with Mohd Hazem saying that he did not know who are the people behind these companies.

Former 1MDB chief executive officer Mohd Hazem Abdul Rahman arrives at the Kuala Lumpur High Court May 17, 2021. — Picture by Miera Zulyana

Where funds from the US$2.7b in 1MDB GIL went

The prosecution had on the first day of Najib’s trial said it would show that 1MDB GIL had on March 19, 2013 only received US$2.721 billion of the US$3 billion funds it raised with the balance paid to arranger Goldman Sachs as fees, and that over US$1 billion of the US$2.721 billion was paid to the two funds Devonshire Funds Ltd and Enterprise Emerging Markets Fund (EEMF) on March 20 and March 21, 2013.

The prosecution had also said it would show that a total of US$890 million — including a US$430 million sum passing through Granton Property Holding under Low Taek Jho’s associate Eric Tan’s control — made its way within days from Devonshire and EEMF to Eric Tan-controlled Tanore Finance Corporation, and that it would also showed that Tanore had by early April 2013 transferred US$681 or over RM2 billion to Najib’s account.

Today, Mohd Hazem confirmed that he had never heard of Tanore and Granton when he was in 1MDB, but in hindsight now knew Low or Jho Low to be the person behind both companies.

Wan Aizuddin today quizzed Mohd Hazem over the movement of funds in 1MDB GIL’s BSI bank account, which initially had more than US$2.7 billion on March 19, 2013 but only had a balance of about US$129.3 million on March 22, 2013.

This was after multiple transfers worth millions of dollars out of 1MDB GIL’s account, some involving purported fund managers that were supposed to help invest the funds and with the funds supposed to still be under 1MDB GIL’s ownership.

Referring to the US$129.3 million balance on March 22, 2013, Wan Aizuddin asked: "So you would agree, that just about three days from the proceeds of the bond which was issued, about 90 per cent have been debited out from the account?”

"Yes,” Mohd Hazem replied, also agreeing with Wan Aizuddin that there were no board resolutions or approvals by the 1MDB board or 1MDB GIL board on these investment funds.

Wan Aizuddin then asked the former 1MDB CEO about a series of transactions of millions of dollars out from 1MDB GIL’s account, with Mohd Hazem confirming repeatedly that there were no board resolutions or approvals from 1MDB GIL to authorise the bank transfers.

This included payments to Yayasan Rakyat 1 Malaysia (YR1M), with Mohd Hazem saying that its board of trustees was chaired by Najib and that the two other trustees were former 1MDB chairman Tan Sri Lodin Wok Kamaruddin and Najib’s then principal private secretary Datuk Azlin Alias.

Mohd Hazem confirmed that YR1M was a completely separate outfit from 1MDB and did not have any formal ties, and that it was also different from Yayasan 1MDB.

He said that 1MDB was involved in corporate social initiatives through Yayasan 1MDB which then outsourced such activities to Ihsan Perdana Sdn Bhd and that 1MDB had contributed funds to Yayasan 1MDB, but this was disputed by Wan Aizuddin who said Yayasan 1MDB was non-existent.

Mohd Hazem said he was not aware that Ihsan Perdana’s director Datuk Dr Shamsul Anwar Sulaiman was previously a 1MDB director in charge of corporate social responsibility.

Mohd Hazem confirmed that he had never heard of Tanore and Granton when he was in 1MDB, but in hindsight now knew Low or Jho Low to be the person behind both companies. — Picture via Facebook

Wan Aizuddin listed several transactions as seen in the bank statement of 1MDB GIL’s account in BSI Bank, including a US$35 million to YR1M on March 25, 2013 and a separate US$35 million on the same day to Kelab Kebajikan 1Malaysia Pulau Pinang which Mohd Hazem said "probably got something to do with Jho Low”.

The other transactions included a US$1.5 million payment on March 28, 2013 to Brazen Sky Limited — a company holding PetroSaudi-related funds for 1MDB, and over US$43 million to 1MDB on April 2, and transfers of US$35 million each to YR1M and Kelab Kebajikan 1Malaysia Pulau Pinang on April 15, US$270 million to 1MDB on April 25, US$30 million to Kelab Kebajikan 1Malaysia Pulau Pinang on April 29, US$35 million to YR1M on May 2, US$121 million to Ambank, US$1.8 million to Brazen Sky on June 28, and US$250 million to 1MDB on August 29, US$179 million to 1MDB on September 11.

For all such transactions, Mohd Hazem confirmed that neither the board of directors for 1MDB GIL or 1MDB had authorised such payments out through board resolutions.

Wan Aizuddin then highlighted the 1MDB GIL account which was supposed to be keeping about US$2.7 billion of the funds raised actually went into an overdrawn position by US$2 million by September 19, 2013.

Wan Aizuddin also referred to various subsequent transactions such as 1MDB transferring US$15.5 million and Brazen Sky later in November 2013 transferring US$9 million to 1MDB GIL, and 1MDB’s transfer of US$90 million on March 10, 2014 to 1MDB GIL. Mohd Hazem either said he was not aware or could not recall the circumstances for such transfers of money into 1MDB GIL’s BSI bank account.

The trial is scheduled to resume tomorrow morning.