KUALA LUMPUR — The High Court here was told yesterday that fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho or Jho Low had submitted a fake agreement to a bank to enable USD700 million to go into the accounts of his company Gold Star Limited (Good Star).
Former 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Datuk Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi, 49, said Jho Low had submitted a fake Investment Management Agreement to RBS Coutte which was purportedly an agreement between 1MDB and Good Star.
The ninth witness, who is an important prosecution witness, said this during the examination-in-chief by Senior Deputy Public Prosecutor, Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram on the 13th day of the trial of Najib who faced four charges of using his position to obtain a bribe of RM2.3 billion in the 1MDB funds and 21 charges of money laundering involving the same amount of money.
Shahrul Azral said that he only knew about the matter after he was asked by an officer of Deutsche Bank (Malaysia) Berhad (DB) who was managing the account of 1MDB, Jacqueline Ho, on the incomplete details of the RBS Coutte bank account for purpose of the transfer.
Earlier, the witness that that he had received an order to transact a transfer of USD1 billion to two different accounts from the lawyers of PetroSaudi International (PSI) on Sept 25, 2009.
He said that the order he received were the transfer of USD300 million to the account of JVCo (the 1MDB-PSI joint-venture company) at J.P. Morgan and USD700 at RBS Coutte.
‘’I only received the account numbers and details without the names of the recipients. I was not suspicious of the matters because they had been checked and scrutinised by the 1MDB laywers. ’Based on the directives of the payments, I directed the payment from 1MDB to RBS Coutte on the same day. After that, there were queries from Deutschebank on Good Star and I asked Jhow Low. Jho Low gave me details of the account of Good Star,” he said.
However, on Oct 2, 2009, Shahrol Azral found differences in the account of Good Star, namely, at the size and types of letters used prompting him to immediately ask Jho Low on the matter.
‘’I was forced to ask Jho Low on the details of the account of the recipients because I myself had no knowledge of the matter and only followed the directives of Jho Low whom I believed had obtained the approval of Najib. ’Furthermore, the important thing for me at that time was that they (money transfers) had been scrutinised by the lawyers and there was nothing that I could query when it involved the law.
‘’Only now I know that Jho Low submitted to RBS Coutte an Investment Management Agreement between 1MDB and Good Star which was signed by one of the 1MDB executive director, Casey Tang,’’ he said.
He added that he had never given Casey Tang the mandate to sign any agreement with Good Star.
‘’During the period I was 1MDB CEO, no business dealing was done with Good Star Limited. I also confirm that the agreement was never tabled in any meeting of the 1MDB Board of Directors. I also confirm that I have never received or seen this (agreement) document prior to this,’’ he said.
Najib, 66, face four charges of using his position to obtain a bribe of RM2.3 billion in the 1MDB funds and 21 charges of money laundering involving the same amount of money.
The Pekan Member of Parliament was charged with committing the four corruption offences at the AmIslamic Bank Berhad branch, Jalan Raja Chulan, Bukit Ceylon here between Feb 24, 2011 and Dec 19, 2014 while all the money laundering charges were between March 22, 2013 and Aug 30, 2013 at the same place.
The trial before Judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah continues tomorrow.
— BERNAMA
