PUTRAJAYA, Feb 27 — Former 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) director Tan Sri Che Lodin Wok Kamaruddin today said he was not told why Tan Sri Mohd Bakke Salleh resigned as 1MDB chairman in late 2009.
Lodin became 1MDB chairman the very next day after Bakke resigned on October 19, 2009 to protest what was happening in 1MDB.
Lodin was testifying as the 12th defence witness for former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak in the 1MDB trial, where more than RM2 billion of the company’s funds allegedly entered the latter’s personal bank accounts.
Deputy public prosecutor Kamal Baharin Omar today asked if Lodin knew what caused Bakke to quit 1MDB on October 19, 2009, but
Lodin replied: “He did not mention to me.”
Kamal Baharin: Do you know that actually Tan Sri Bakke did make a complaint to Datuk Seri Najib Razak about Shahrol or the management not following the board’s instructions about PetroSaudi International, where the money should be sent but was not done?
Lodin: I don’t know.
At that time, 1MDB had already decided to enter into a joint venture deal with alleged partner PetroSaudi International by pumping in US$1 billion, but the 1MDB management led by then CEO Datuk Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi was said to have split up and transferred the US$1 billion without the 1MDB board’s knowledge or agreement.
Previously, Bakke had as the 15th prosecution witness in the same trial said he had resigned as 1MDB chairman as a sign of protest, as he suspected something wrong was going on at the Finance Ministry-owned company.
Before his resignation, Bakke said he had sent a text message to alert Najib of the 1MDB management’s failure to follow the board’s instructions on the US$1 billion deal, and had hoped for the then prime minister to take action if he found any misconduct.
But Bakke had said he felt Najib was involved as he did not get a reply from the latter, and that this was unusual as he would usually get a response.
Najib previously told the same 1MDB trial that he had not received Bakke’s text message.
Previously, Bakke said Najib had in a phone call — passed to him on Low Taek Jho’s handphone just before a 1MDB board meeting on September 26, 2009 could start — asked the board to quickly finalise its decision on the US$1 billion deal.
The 1MDB board then decided in the meeting on the same day to conditionally approve the US$1 billion deal, which was previously informed to the board as having a targeted agreement signing date of September 28, 2009.
Najib had previously denied that his phone conversation with Bakke was meant to pressure the 1MDB board into approving the deal, and that he spoke via Low’s phone instead of calling Bakke directly because it was convenient.
Today, Kamal Baharin suggested that the 1MDB board had approved the US$1 billion deal despite multiple outstanding issues, because it was influenced by Najib’s pre-meeting phone call to Bakke.
But Lodin disagreed.
Lodin later told deputy public prosecutor Ahmad Akram Gharib that he believed the 1MDB board would have still made the same decision to approve the US$1 billion deal even without Najib’s phone call happening or without the board being told of Najib’s phone conversation with Bakke.
Earlier when quizzed by Akram, Lodin said he recalled Bakke as having told the 1MDB board that Najib wanted the US$1 billion deal to continue and for it to be handled “more efficiently”.
Akram suggested that the fact that Najib had told these things to Bakke showed that the then prime minister really wanted the US$1 billion deal to happen and really wanted the 1MDB board to agree with the project.
Lodin then said: “Again, the board has its responsibility, and even though the chairman of the board of advisers said that he’d like to see the project carried out efficiently, but we were cognisant of the fact that this was a big --- in fact the biggest project of 1MDB.
“So that’s why we took cognisance of the conversation between Datuk Seri Najib and Bakke and accordingly discussed and came up with various conditions that we wanted to see carried out before we carry on with the joint venture with PetroSaudi,” Lodin said.
Lodin was 1MDB chairman from October 20, 2009 until his resignation in May 2016.
Najib was finance minister from September 2008 to May 2018, and was prime minister from April 2009 to May 2018.
In this trial, Najib is facing charges of power abuse in 1MDB affairs through his former triple roles as prime minister, finance minister and chairman of 1MDB’s board of advisers, and is also facing charges of money laundering funds belonging to 1MDB.
The prosecution had previously said in this trial that it would prove that US$20 million (over RM60 million) from 1MDB’s US$1 billion joint venture deal were diverted and had ended up in Najib’s personal bank account.
Najib’s 1MDB trial before trial judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah resumes next Monday.
