KUALA LUMPUR – A former banker today told the high court here that fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho or Jho Low was in a car convoy heading towards Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s house in Bukit Tunku in 2011.
Former AmBank non-executive director Cheah Tek Kuang, 75, said he went to Najib’s house to help open the former prime minister’s bank accounts.
The 39th prosecution witness was being cross-examined by lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah at Najib’s corruption and money laundering trial involving RM2.3 billion belonging to 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB), here, today.
He said that a car had come to his house in January 2011 to fetch and bring him to Najib’s house.
“When the car fetched me, there was a convoy of two or three cars. I was in the car with a driver.
“The other cars had other people inside. When I arrived at Najib’s house, I saw Jho Low in one of the cars,” he said.
Cheah, however, said there was no communication between him and Jho Low at Najib’s house.
He said he knew very little about Jho Low prior to 2011, and that the businessman was never a customer of the commercial bank.
“I had only met him two or three times for a lunch meeting. But he had a habit of turning up late,” he said, adding that Jho Low was late for 30 minutes.
The witness also denied that he received a BlackBerry phone as a gift from Jho Low.
Najib, 69, faces four charges of using his position to obtain bribes amounting to RM2.3 billion belonging to 1MDB and 21 charges of money laundering involving the same amount.
The trial before judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah continues. – Bernama, October 5, 2022
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