.JPG "Datuk Seri Najib Razak arrives at the Kuala Lumpur High Court April 7, 2022. u00e2u20acu201d Picture by Firdaus Latif")
KUALA LUMPUR, April 7 ― Former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and Low Taek Jho (popularly known as Jho Low) were photographed together with Najib’s family and others on a yacht, former 1MDB director Tan Sri Ismee Ismail said today.
Ismee was testifying in the High Court as the 13th prosecution witness in Najib’s trial over the misappropriation of more than RM2 billion of 1MDB funds.
Lead prosecutor Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram today presented a photograph ― while mentioning that it was a “yacht” photograph ― to Ismee, asking him to identify the individuals in the photograph.
Sri Ram: From the left, can you identify anyone?
Ismee: From the left is Jho Low, and then I believe next to Jho Low is Prince Turki, the next is Datuk Seri Najib, next to Datuk Seri Najib is Datin Seri Rosmah, next is Datuk Seri Najib’s son, and the next one to him I believe is Tarek Obaid, and the next, most right would be Datuk Seri Najib’s daughter.
Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor is Najib’s wife, while Prince Turki is believed to be referring to a prince from Saudi Arabia, and Tarek Obaid is Saudi firm PetroSaudi International Limited’s director.
Sri Ram today also noted that Najib’s lead defence lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah had previously suggested that Ismee had made an assumption that Low was close to Najib and that assumption was unsupported by evidence, and that Ismee had agreed at that time.
Ismee, however, explained today that his view of Low and Najib being close was from observation: “It was through observation, my observation.”
Sri Ram then asked Ismee what he had observed throughout his years of serving as a director in 1MDB’s board from 2009 to 2016.
Sri Ram: Throughout that period, what did you gather to be the relationship between Jho Low and the accused Datuk Seri Najib?
Ismee: I believe close relationship.
Asked by Sri Ram today if he had any “personal knowledge of any arrangements that Datuk Seri Najib may have had with Jho Low as to how the monies of 1MDB were to be shared between them”, Ismee replied: “I don’t.”
Ismee had confirmed today that flow charts of money flows from major 1MDB transactions and other documents had shown millions of ringgit of 1MDB funds being transferred in the past to Najib’s personal bank accounts at AmIslamic Bank, including funds originating from a US$700 million diverted away from a US$1 billion purported investment by 1MDB.
Previously, Ismee had told the court that he viewed Low as having a good relationship with Najib as Low had made multiple references to the latter with the labels “boss” or “PM” during meetings, and had said that the 1MDB board did not totally disregard emails from Low due to the latter’s close relationship with Najib.
Ismee had viewed the now-fugitive Low to be an adviser to Najib for 1MDB matters, and had previously told the court that he had once followed Najib on an official visit to Abu Dhabi and sighted Low there and that Low was spotted at Najib’s suite — where 1MDB directors and PetroSaudi International Limited officials were to hold a meeting — at Hotel Dorchester, London in May 2011.
Among other things, Ismee had previously also highlighted how Low had handed over his handphone to then 1MDB chairman Tan Sri Mohd Bakke Salleh before a 1MDB board meeting on September 26, 2009 could start.
Following the phone call on Low’s handphone where then prime minister Najib spoke to Bakke, Bakke had then told the 1MDB directors that Najib wanted them to speed up their decision on a proposed joint venture with PetroSaudi International Limited. This later resulted in 1MDB pumping in US$1 billion for a purported investment in the joint venture, with over RM60 million from these funds said to have entered Najib’s account.
Ismee had previously suggested that the directors might have asked the 1MDB management to postpone the joint venture to enable further studies to be carried out, if not for Najib’s instructions.
It was in the September 26, 2009 board meeting that the 1MDB directors agreed to approve the joint venture, despite the proposal having only been briefed to them just days earlier on September 18, 2009 and despite the directors awaiting further due diligence by the 1MDB management before the proposal could be approved.
Asked by Sri Ram today, Ismee confirmed that the 1MDB board of directors had in an October 3, 2009 meeting collectively raised the issue 1MDB management not following the directors’ instructions, with US$700 million from the US$1 billion of 1MDB funds having been diverted into another company instead of the joint venture company with alleged partner PetroSaudi International Limited.
Ismee confirmed then 1MDB chairman Bakke was the “most vociferous” during this board meeting and that the latter had then resigned shortly after the meeting. Ismee also confirmed that he himself did not resign as a director from 1MDB.
Ismee also confirmed that he would first verify that 1MDB’s shareholder Ministry of Finance Incorporated (MOF Inc) had given its consent or signed approval on 1MDB matters, before he signed as a 1MDB director on the board’s resolutions.
“Yup, because all the director’s circular resolutions I received would come with the shareholder’s resolution,” he said.
Shareholder’s resolutions for 1MDB were signed by Najib as the representative of 1MDB’s shareholder MOF Inc, due to his position then as finance minister.
Today Sri Ram asked if Ismee could have gone against Najib’s wishes on 1MDB matters, with Ismee saying that he could have done so if he left the 1MDB board just like Bakke.
Sri Ram: In the climate that prevailed between 2009 and 2016 when you were on the board with 1MDB, were you in a position to go against or to contradict the wishes of Datuk Seri Najib as to the way in which 1MDB should be run?
Ismee: Well I suppose I could, by not getting myself involved
Sri Ram: In other words, if you did a Bakke and resigned, then of course you could have done that?
Ismee: Yes, I could have done that.
Sri Ram then went on to ask: “But in the climate that prevailed at that time, after Bakke’s resignation, when you continued to be there, what was the attitude of the board to any wishes that came from the accused as prime minister?’
Ismee said that he had personally in the early days of 1MDB thought that one of the major transactions — involving 1MDB’s purported US$1 billion investment into a joint venture with purported partner PetroSaudi International Limited — was a good transaction, and that he had a high trust in then prime minister Najib then.
“I can’t recall specifically, generally in terms of the attitude of the whole board. But from my own perspective, especially during the early days of 2009 when we did the PetroSaudi transaction, I actually thought it would be a good transaction for us.
“Especially you know in my capacity as CEO of Tabung Haji, when I needed to have a lot of dealings with Saudi authorities, so I thought it would be a good initiative for us to enhance the relationship between Malaysia and Saudi Arabia. I did not expect there to be any fraud or misfeasance.
“Therefore I think and I believed that time, I had quite a high level, high degree of trust in the leadership, the prime minister himself then. Trust and loyalty, so that’s why I suppose I didn’t do the Bakke.”
At that time, Ismee was CEO of Lembaga Tabung Haji, with his appointment in this role having been made by Najib’s predecessor as prime minister, Tun Abdullah Badawi. Ismee’s appointment as 1MDB director was made by Najib.
Sri Ram today also referred to the minutes of a December 15, 2013 meeting between 1MDB’s then auditor KPMG and Najib at the latter’s house at Jalan Langgak Duta, where Najib was recorded as having told KPMG that he wanted the auditor to sign off on 1MDB’s financial statement — for the year ending March 31, 2013 — by December 31, 2013.
KPMG, which was given 16 days to sign off on the audit, did not sign it. Another prosecution witness had told the court previously that this was because the audit firm was still dissatisfied with 1MDB’s answers and documents on the company’s purported US$2.3 billion investment overseas.
Sri Ram also highlighted the 1MDB directors’ December 31, 2013 resolution to remove KPMG as auditors and to replace it with Deloitte KassimChan, as well as a letter on the same day from 1MDB’s sole shareholder MOF Inc’s authorised representative stating the intention to propose the resolution to remove and replace KPMG with Deloitte KassimChan.
When asked by Sri Ram if he would have signed this directors’ resolution if the shareholder’s letter had not been attached, Ismee noted: “I believe change of auditors require shareholder’s approval anyway.”
Sri Ram then asked if Ismee would not have signed it on his own, with Ismee replying: “Even if we sign it, if shareholder don’t approve, it doesn’t happen.”
Sri Ram then said: “That’s right, because the shareholder dictates it”, to which Ismee agreed.
Najib’s 1MDB trial before High Court judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah is scheduled to resume on April 18, with 1MBD’s former chief financial officer Azmi Tahir expected to be cross-examined as the 12th prosecution witness.
