KUALA LUMPUR – Former 1Malaysia Development Bhd chief executive Mohd Hazem Abd Rahman told the high court today that the state investor was set up to benefit Umno.
The 47-year-old witness, testifying in the trial of former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak over the misappropriation of 1MDB funds, said he would not have joined the company had he known it was involved in illegal activities.
That 1MDB was set up for Umno’s benefit was conveyed by fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho, better known as Jho Low, he said during cross-examination by Najib’s lead counsel, Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah.
“I heard it from Jho Low himself during a meeting at Shangri-La Hotel in Putrajaya just before I joined 1MDB as chief operating officer (in 2012).”
He said Najib’s former principal private secretary, the late Datuk Azlin Alias, was present at the meeting.
Asked by Shafee whether he checked the validity of Low’s statement, Hazem said Azlin, too, heard the businessman’s remarks.
Shafee: I cannot call Azlin nor examine him, as he has passed away (in a helicopter crash in April 2015). That’s why I have to ask you. You agree with me that on that day, you had not been absorbed as COO yet. More or less, you were being interviewed in the meeting.
Hazem: Yes.
To another question, the 10th prosecution witness admitted that he was aware that 1MDB was a company fully owned by the government.
However, based on what Low had told him, he realised that 1MDB was “politically linked”, in the sense that it would be used as a vehicle to raise funds for Umno.
He said he would not have known that 1MDB was created for the party’s benefit had it not been for Low telling him.
“I would have probably known later, from my friends.”
He agreed with Shafee’s suggestion that in hindsight, he saw money moving out of the state investor.
Shafee: You would never have thought of it, not in your lifetime, that this money would one day be accused of being sent back for Najib’s benefit.
Hazem: No.
Shafee: Why didn’t you expect this? Because this scheme is outlandish?
Hazem: Yes, I didn’t expect this.
Shafee: And if this (scheme) was communicated to you, you may not have accepted the appointment (in the company)?
Hazem: Yes.
Shafee: Why wouldn’t you accept the appointment, if you knew?
Hazem: Like you said, it is outlandish the way the scheme was undertaken.
Najib, 67, is facing four counts of abusing his position to obtain bribes totalling RM2.3 billion in 1MDB funds, and 21 counts of money laundering involving the same amount.
The trial before judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah continues tomorrow. – Bernama, January 6, 2021
