Querying US$700m transfer to Jho Low's company wasn't a priority, says witness in 1MDB trial

KUALA LUMPUR, April 24 ― The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) investigating officer told the High Court today that she did not question Datuk Seri Najib Razak if he instructed the former 1MDB CEO to transfer US$700 million (RM3.34 billion) to Good Star Limited, owned by fugitive businessman Jho Low.

MACC Senior Supt Nur Aida Arifin, 37, said that she felt it was not important to ask the former premier about the transaction, however, she asked Datuk Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi about it.

She was responding to a cross-examination by Najib’s counsel, Wan Azwan Aiman Wan Fakhruddin regarding the transaction in September 2009.

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Wan Azwan: Did you ask Najib if the instruction to transfer 70 per cent of the US$1 billion investment sum came from him?

“I had only asked Shahrol Azral. I didn't ask Najib. Saya rasa tak penting (I felt it wasn’t important),” she said.

Nur Aida disagreed with a suggestion by the counsel that Shahrol Azral was the 'alter ego' to Jho Low and said that Shahrol Azral had believed that all instructions from Jho Low were from Najib.

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The prosecution’s 49th witness also admitted that Najib did not instruct Shahrol Azral and the company's former executive director of business development, Casey Tang Keng Chee, to conceal the US$700 million transaction from the board of directors.

In 2022, former finance minister II Datuk Seri Ahmad Husni Mohamad Hanadzlah testified that Najib kept quiet, was relaxed and he did not react to or take any action over the US$700 million transaction.

Najib, 70, faces four charges of using his position to obtain bribes amounting to RM2.3 billion of 1MDB funds and 21 charges of money laundering involving the same amount.

The trial before Judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah continues. ― Bernama