1MDB trial: MACC investigating officer says did not ask Najib over US$700m transfer to Jho Low’s firm Good Star

KUALA LUMPUR, April 24 — A Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) investigating officer told the High Court today she had never asked Datuk Seri Najib Razak about purported instructions given for the transfer of US$700 million to an entity linked to fugitive Low Taek Jho or Jho Low back in 2009.

Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Senior Superintendent Nur Aida Arifin said this while under cross-examination as the 49th prosecution witness in Najib’s trial over the misappropriation of 1MDB’s RM2.27 billion here.

Under cross-examination by Najib’s lawyer Wan Azwan Aiman, Nur Aida told the court she had asked former 1MDB chief executive Datuk Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi and thought it sufficient for the purposes of her investigation.

When asked if she should have asked Najib due to its importance to the investigation, Nur Aida replied in the negative.

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The controversial transfer is related to 1MDB’s joint venture (JV) with Saudi Arabia-based PetroSaudi International Limited (PSI), under which 1MDB undertook an equity investment of US$1 billion while PSI injected US$1.5 billion worth of assets into the JV.

Although the plan was for the joint venture to be signed by Najib and Saudi Arabia’s then Ruler King Abdullah on behalf of 1MDB and PSI, the joint venture agreement dated September 28, 2009 was in the end signed by Shahrol on behalf of 1MDB and PSI chief executive Tarek Obaid on behalf of the similar-sounding firm PetroSaudi Holdings (Cayman) Limited.

Through instructions from Shahrol, 1MDB diverted US$700 million from the US$1 billion JV equity investment into an account belonging to Good Star Limited, on the grounds that Good Star was PSI’s affiliate.

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In truth, Good Star was an entity linked to Low and whose RBS Coutts account was only nearly four months old at the time of the US$700 million transfer.

Of the US$700 million, a total of US$20 million — in two batches of US$10 million respectively on February 24, 2011 and on June 14, 2011 — ultimately being sent to Najib’s AmIslamic Bank account.

Former Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) governor Tan Sri Zeti Akhtar Aziz previously told the court BNM only discovered in 2015 that 1MDB had sent US$700 million to Good Star, as 1MDB had gave false information in 2009 and did not provide the required information to BNM despite continued efforts to obtain such updates.

Imprisoned since August 23, 2022, Najib is serving a 12-year jail sentence for the misappropriation of SRC International’s RM42 million funds. This was recently reduced to six years of jail and a RM50 million fine, from the initial RM210 million, by the Pardons Board.

Najib’s 1MDB trial before trial judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah resumes tomorrow.