1MDB: Najib didn't say a word, showed me the door, Tong testifies

1MDB TRIAL | Tong Kooi Ong testified that Najib Abdul Razak did not say a word when the then-prime minister opened the door for him to leave the latter’s house in 2015.

The chairperson of news publication The Edge, as the 43rd prosecution witness, testified this during today’s RM2.28 billion corruption trial against former finance minister Najib.

“He never said a word. He walked to the door, opened the door, and I left around 11.30pm or 11.45pm,” Tong said during proceedings before the Kuala Lumpur High Court.

The accused’s lead defence counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah was cross-examining Tong about the witness’ previous testimony that Najib (above) walked him to the door of the residence at Langgak Duta on March 6, 2015, after the media magnate told the then premier about the troubles at 1MDB.

In Tong’s write-up for The Edge in 2015 about the visit, he claimed “I then proceeded to tell Najib that Jho Low (fugitive businessperson Low Taek Jho) must be held accountable and be prosecuted. This upset him. He immediately stood up, walked to the door and asked me to leave.”

During this morning’s proceedings before trial judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah, Shafee was asking whether Tong could have misinterpreted Najib’s gesture of opening the door and asking the witness to leave.

Shafee: He (Najib) did not open the door and asked you to get out?

Tong: No he did not ask me (verbally) to leave.

The witness testified that Najib opened the door after the former explained what The Edge’s investigative reporting revealed - that Low was involved in embezzlement at 1MDB, among other things.

“I am just a mere lawyer,” Shafee then said.

“Whenever I am alone with him, he walks to the door every time a meeting is over. Would you be surprised?” Shafee asked, to which Tong said he would not be surprised.

The witness also agreed with the lawyer that Najib is the most polite person the former knew, further agreeing that Najib was never rude.

When Shafee suggested that Najib then had already taken steps to deal with the 1MDB issue by getting the National Audit Department (NAD) to probe the matter, Tong said that was not the impression he had when he was meeting Najib in 2015.

Tong, Nazir initially thought Najib misled over 1MDB

Meanwhile, Tong agreed with Shafee’s contention that the former and Najib’s younger brother Nazir Razak initially thought that the then-premier was misled over the wrongdoings at 1MDB.

The Edge chairperson testified that he was roped in by former CIMB chairperson Nazir in 2010 to get the business daily to commence investigative reporting into 1MDB.

Tong testified that he and the then-banker thought that 1MDB management was misleading the Malaysian wealth sovereign fund as well as Najib.

Shafee: Najib’s brother Nazir, so he and you were concerned that Jho Low and some members of management in 1MDB were misleading the prime minister (Najib) and the board?

Tong: That was our initial impression.

Proceedings before Sequerah continues this afternoon.

Najib’s 1MDB charges

Najib is on trial over four counts of abuse of power and 21 counts of money laundering involving RM2.28 billion from 1MDB.

In regards to the four abuse of power charges, the incumbent Pekan MP was alleged to have committed the offences at AmIslamic Bank Berhad’s Jalan Raja Chulan branch in Bukit Ceylon, Kuala Lumpur, between Feb 24, 2011, and Dec 19, 2014.

On the 21 money laundering counts, the former finance minister was purported to have committed the offences at the same bank between March 22, 2013, and Aug 30, 2013.

The prosecution contended that the wrongdoing at 1MDB was carried out by Low and several others with Najib’s blessing.

However, the accused’s defence team claimed that Najib had no knowledge of the crime perpetrated at 1MDB and the embezzlement was solely masterminded by Low and other members of the fund’s management.

The BN advisory chairperson is serving a 12-year jail sentence after the Federal Court on Aug 23 dismissed his appeal against the RM42 million SRC International corruption case conviction.

Initially a subsidiary of 1MDB, SRC later became fully owned by MOF Inc. Najib also used to be adviser emeritus to SRC.

1MDB trial postponed as prosecution witnesses not ready, Shafee on MC

Najib showed me the door when I warned him about Jho Low - Edge MD

DPP: If no ‘dirty linen’, Najib should allow PAC access 1MDB audit report

1MDB trial | Ex-Treasury sec-gen Irwan questions why he was charged