1MDB: Jho Low threatened me, says The Edge chairperson

Fugitive businessperson Low Taek Jho threatened The Edge chairperson Tong Kooi Ong over the business daily’s investigative reporting into the 1MDB scandal, the High Court in Kuala Lumpur heard today.

Tong, the 43rd prosecution witness, testified this during the RM2.28 billion 1MDB corruption trial against the former prime minister and finance minister Najib Abdul Razak this afternoon.

During re-examination by lead deputy public prosecutor Gopal Sri Ram, Tong said Low (above), who is also known as Jho Low, conveyed the threat during a second meeting both men had in 2014.

Sri Ram had asked Tong whether he then knew or suspected Najib of having a relationship with Low, to which the media magnate said he and The Edge already knew then, during the publication of various investigative articles.

“I already then knew Jho Low, as Low had actually come forward to meet me before (the meeting that Tong said he had with Najib in 2015).

“In 2014, after The Edge started writing (the articles), Jho Low contacted me to see me and saw me twice. Jho Low’s father Larry Low was a person I knew since the 1990s.

“Jho Low told me in the first meeting (between the two) where The Edge was wrong and that he (Low) had nothing to do with 1MDB. And in the second meeting, he said he knows Najib and we (The Edge) should be careful about what we wrote,” Tong said.

The witness explained that Low’s words conveyed a statement threatening The Edge to stop writing further investigative articles about 1MDB.

Sri Ram: What was your response?

Tong: Basically, I ignore threats.

Previously, Tong testified that Najib showed him the door to leave the then-prime minister’s residence at Langgak Duta in 2015, following the media magnate’s attempt to warn the accused about the troubles at 1MDB then.

Tong also previously told the court that following his meeting with Najib in 2015, he and The Edge faced numerous troubles as the business daily kept publishing further reports on 1MDB, including a threat from the then-prime minister's media adviser Paul Stadlen that the "PMO is all-powerful" (in reference to the Prime Minister's Office).

The trial before judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah will resume tomorrow.

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

In regard to the four abuse of power charges, the former 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, he 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 in 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 of SRC.

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