Ex-CEO: Najib spoke on Jho Low's phone to doubtful 1MDB chair
NAJIB TRIAL | Then prime minister Najib Abdul Razak had allegedly reached out to Mohd Bakke Salleh on fugitive businessperson Low Taek Jho's mobile phone after the 1MDB chairperson at the time raised various doubts about a joint-venture deal with PetroSaudi International (PSI).
This was according to former 1MDB CEO Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi's 273-page witness statement which he read out during Najib's 1MDB graft trial at the Kuala Lumpur High Court today.
The PSI joint-venture would eventually see at least US$1.83 billion of 1MDB funds misappropriated...
NAJIB TRIAL | Then prime minister Najib Abdul Razak had allegedly reached out to Mohd Bakke Salleh on fugitive businessperson Low Taek Jho's mobile phone after the 1MDB chairperson at the time raised doubts about a joint-venture deal with PetroSaudi International (PSI).
This was according to former 1MDB CEO Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi's 273-page witness statement which he read out during Najib's 1MDB graft trial at the Kuala Lumpur High Court today.
The PSI joint-venture would eventually see at least US$1.83 billion of 1MDB funds misappropriated.
Shahrol testified that the incident took place on Sept 26, 2009, moments before the 1MDB board of directors was to convene a meeting to decide on the PSI joint-venture.
He said before the meeting started, he saw Low, better known as Jho Low, on his phone and subsequently passed the phone to Bakke, who was to chair the board meeting.
"Bakke closed part of Low's phone with his hand and told all of us it was 'PM' which meant the prime minister.
"I understood this to mean that Najib wanted to speak with him. I saw Bakke standing up to take the call in the meeting room," he said.
Shahrol claimed that after the call, Bakke (photo) informed the board that the PSI joint-venture was a government-to-government initiative, and Najib wanted it to be expedited.
Shahrol said before the call, he had informed Low that the latter had to do something to convince the board as Bakke and another board member, Azlan Mohd Zainol, raised doubts about the joint-venture structure at an earlier meeting on Sept 18, 2009.
"To my knowledge, the call was made by the prime minister to the 1MDB board chairperson, who is Bakke, after Bakke and Azlan appeared unconvinced about the investment when the PSI joint-venture project paper was presented by (1MDB business development executive director) Casey Tang on Sept 18, 2009.
"They were not confident whether the investment truly involves a company owned by the Saudi Arabia government or not. They also questioned the 60-40 percent shareholding in the joint-venture in which PSI will contribute to the 60 percent using its oil assets.
"The board of directors wanted a deeper understanding of the assets through an independent valuation or site visit. Bakke even wanted a PSI representative to personally present the JV to the board," he said.
Shahrol said following Najib's call on Sept 26, the board agreed to the joint-venture and the 1MDB CEO then proceeded to make it happen.
On Oct 3, 2009, Shahrol said he informed the 1MDB board that 1MDB had paid the US$1 billion to subscribe to its 40 percent share in the joint-venture but that the payment had been split into two - US$300 million to the joint venture entity 1MDB-PetroSaudi JV and another US$700 million to Good Star Ltd,
Good Star Ltd, which investigations will later reveal to be linked to Jho Low, was at the time represented as a subsidiary of PSI.
Shahrol said during the briefing, Bakke was dissatisfied with his justification that the remaining US$700 million was not paid into the joint-venture entity and became angry, demanding that the 1MDB management recover the money.
Shahrol said he subsequently tried to recover the US$700 million by meeting PSI's executives Tarek Obaid and Patrick Mahoney but they rejected his request on grounds that it would be a breach of the joint-venture contract.
Shahrol said Jho Low had also instructed Tang to brief him on how to explain the questions raised by the 1MDB board, which the 1MDB CEO followed during the next board meeting on Oct 10, 2009.
"Bakke was still dissatisfied with all the explanations I provided. Soon after, Bakke resigned as a 1MDB director on Oct 19, 2009.
"I do not know the reason for his resignation but I feel it is possible that he was dissatisfied with what happened in the joint-venture process," he said. Azlan had also resigned from the board.
Shahrol was testifying as the prosecution's ninth witness in Najib's 1MDB graft trial.
Najib is facing 25 charges of money laundering and abuse of power over the alleged misappropriation of RM2.28 billion from 1MDB.
The trial is being presided by Kuala Lumpur High Court Judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah.
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