‘NAJIB DIDN’T AUTHORISE US$1B GOOD STAR TRANSFER’
MACC senior officer testifies that dealings were done by 1MDB’s top brass
DATUK Seri Najib Razak did not direct 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) to transfer a total of US$1.03 billion to a bogus offshore company linked to fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho or Jho Low, the High Court heard.
Malaysian Anti-Corruption
Commission (MACC) senior officer Nur Aida Arifin said the dealings were done by 1MDB’s top brass, who were responsible for the transactions between 1MDB and Good Star Ltd.
She said they were former 1MDB chief executive Datuk Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi, former chief financial officer Radhi Mohamad, and former executive directors Terence Geh Choh Heng and Casey Tang Keng Chee.
Nur Aida said this when testifying as a key prosecution witness in Najib’s corruption trial for misappropriating millions of ringgit of funds belonging to 1MDB before judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah.
The witness, who was the investigating officer for the case, also agreed with Najib’s counsel Wan Azwan Aiman’s contention that based on the documents presented in court, all individuals involved allowed the remittance of the funds to Good Star.
Nur Aida, when under crossexamination by Wan Azman yesterday, also agreed that she never asked the former prime minister if he had instructed the transfer of US$700 million to Good Star.
The US$700 million was part of 1MDB’s US$1 billion that was supposed to be channelled to a jointventure company set up between 1MDB and PetroSaudi International Ltd (PSI) but had ended up in Good Star’s coffers.
It was reported that only US$300 million was remitted to the joint venture firm JP Morgan’s account.
On Sept 19, last year, a witness, Bank Negara Malaysia analyst Adam Ariff Mohd Roslan, when testifying in the same trial, said Low, through Good Star, received
US$810 million belonging to the sovereign wealth fund over three years.
He said 1MDB had transferred US$700 million and US$110 million into the RBS Coutts account belonging to Good Star in 2011.
He said the Good Star account was empty prior to the US$700 million remittance from 1MDB.
Najib, 70, is facing four charges of using his position to obtain bribes totalling RM2.3 billion from 1MDB funds and 21 charges of money laundering involving the same amount.
The hearing continues.