KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 26 — Businessman Low Taek Jho had produced letters purportedly from prominent entities such as Saudi Arabia’s embassy in Malaysia and the Malaysian ambassador in Saudi Arabia as part of his guide to 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) officials on how to explain the company’s affairs, the High Court heard today.

Former 1MDB CEO Datuk Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi said he had received these documents from Low through email in the past, adding that Low had supplied these talking points that 1MDB were supposed to use when asked about 1MDB’s multi-billion ringgit worth of financial transactions and its joint venture with alleged business partner PetroSaudi International (PSI).

“As far as I recall, these talking points were given to me to answer questions that 1MDB has to answer to the public. These talking points also contain details of the 1MDB-PSI joint venture and came with letters from the Saudi embassy that supported PSI, the Malaysian embassy to Saudi Arabia that supported Prince Turki and Tarek Obaid, Banque Saudi Fransi that stated the good status of PSI.

“In general, these supporting documents are to give confidence that PSI is a company that has a good and trustworthy reputation,” Shahrol said in Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s corruption trial over 1MDB.

The set of 10 documents produced in court today included Low’s talking points titled “PetroSaudi Joint Venture 2009 and Murabaha Facility 2010”, the Saudi embassy in Kuala Lumpur’s May 11, 2011 letter to then prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak to express support for PSI.

The documents also included a May 7, 2011 letter of confirmation regarding PSI from the Malaysian ambassador in Saudi Arabia to 1MDB, and a May 1, 2011 letter from Saudi firm Banque Saudi Fransi to 1MDB regarding a reference letter for PSI CEO Tarek Obaid.

The other documents were related to banking transactions, with some of the documents involving September 2014 and May 2015 dates. (Shahrol said he was removed from his post as 1MDB CEO in March 2013 and was transferred to become a director in government efficiency unit Pemandu, but remained as 1MDB director until 2017).

Najib’s approval?

Shahrol told the court that Low uses talking points to ensure he acts according to Low’s wishes, claiming that Low would always say that the talking points handed over to Shahrol had allegedly already been discussed and agreed to by Najib.

“I think he was not lying about that as most of the times I referred the content of the talking points that Jho Low gave to me, Datuk Seri Najib never said he did not agree with it, and will only ask/ order me to take follow-up actions according to the content of the talking points,” he said.

Gag order

When asked if questions were actually asked to 1MDB about the matters in Low’s talking point, Shahrol said such questions were asked to the 1MDB CEO then Arul Kanda Kandasamy and that there was an instruction to directors to not comment to reporters.

“But members of the board were advised not to speak to the media by Arul at that time, 2015. So I don’t recall any instances when any member of the board spoke publicly about these,” Shahrol said, adding that the talking points addressed questions raised during investigations of 1MDB.

“The questions raised have come from, for example the National Audit Department in the first inquiry into 1MDB, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) when they were conducting their hearings and as well as any other parties within the government,” he said.

The 1MDB financial scandal was widely covered in media exposes from 2015 onwards, with the prosecution saying at the start of this trial that it would show the purported joint venture between 1MDB and PSI was a false scheme that eventually resulted in millions of US dollars being funnelled from 1MDB to Najib.

‘Please destroy’

Shahrol said Low had always asked him to destroy documents regarding 1MDB.

“For each talking points document or action plan and emails that I received from Jho Low, he always instructed me to ensure those documents are destroyed with the reason that they contain very confidential and sensitive documents and can be misused to threaten Datuk Seri Najib’s position politically if it falls into the wrong hands,” Shahrol said, adding that there might have been documents which he had overlooked and failed to destroy.

Najib’s ongoing 1MDB trial involves 25 criminal charges — four counts of abusing his position for his own financial benefit totalling almost RM2.3 billion allegedly originating from 1MDB and the resulting 21 counts of money-laundering.