[UPDATED] 1MDB: Najib loses bid to get docs from companies linked to Jho Low, Zeti’s family

KUALA LUMPUR – Datuk Seri Najib Razak has failed in his bid to get banking documents relating to companies believed to be linked to fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho and former Bank Negara governor Tan Sri Zeti Akhtar Aziz’s family for his 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MBD) trial.

Appellate judge Datuk Nordin Hassan today ruled that those documents were irrelevant to the former prime minister’s current 1MDB trial.

Najib also failed to get witness statements of those interviewed by the police and Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) officers.

“There are no appealable errors by the high court judge to warrant an intervention by this court,” Nordin was quoted as saying by Free Malaysia Today.

“The appellant cannot have access to the statements as there is a real danger of tampering. This is also akin to handing over investigation papers to an accused (which cannot be allowed).”

Nordin said 1MDB said trial judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah was right to dismiss Najib’s application compelling the prosecution to call certain witnesses.

He added that the prosecution does not have former Goldman Sachs banker Tim Leissner’s mobile phone and password.

Meanwhile, the prosecution is looking into calling another seven witnesses, including Zeti, to the witness stand in the ongoing 1MDB trial.

Najib is on trial on 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 trial is ongoing before Kuala Lumpur High Court judge Sequerah. 

The 68-year-old is serving a 12-year jail sentence in Kajang Prison after the Federal Court upheld his conviction for the misappropriation of RM42 million SRC International Sdn Bhd funds on August 23.

The former prime minister is appealing against the high court’s decision on July 12 last year in dismissing two of his discovery applications to compel the prosecution in his 1MDB trial to disclose banking documents linked to Zeti’s family on claims that her family allegedly received monies from fugitive financier Low Taek Jho, also known as Jho Low.

In the court proceedings today, Najib’s lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah submitted that 19 documents sought involving companies controlled by Zeti’s family and Jho Low were with the prosecution and the Malaysian authorities.

Najib filed a court order on March 24 last year to compel the prosecution to provide several banking statements from companies, including Aktis Capital Singapore Pte Ltd, Country Group Securities Public Company Ltd, ACME Time Ltd (BVI), Butamba Investments Ltd, and Central Holdings Ltd, believed to be related to Jho Low and Zeti’s family in his 1MDB case.

He also filed a second application on April 7 last year seeking to obtain the confidential settlement agreement between the government and the Goldman Sachs Group entered in 2020 and for former Goldman Sachs Asia partner Leissner’s disclosure of the 1MDB officer who he had bribed. – The Vibes, December 8, 2022