My Impression Was Najib Wanted 1mdb Psi Deal Done Ex Board Member

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Najib Abdul Razak’s defence team contended that the then prime minister never instructed the 1MDB board of directors in 2009 to proceed with a joint venture (JV) with Abu Dhabi’s Petrosaudi International (PSI).
However, the sovereign wealth fund’s former board member Ismee Ismail stressed that he was under the impression that Najib at the time wanted it done.
The 13th prosecution witness testified this during today’s RM2.28 billion 1MDB corruption trial against Najib, who also used to be the finance minister and the chairperson of the fund’s board of advisers.
Ismee was replying while under cross-examination by lead defence counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah.
During proceedings before the Kuala Lumpur High Court, the lawyer was asking the witness about a telephone conversation between 1MDB’s then board chairperson Mohd Bakke Salleh and Najib during a board meeting on Sept 26, 2009.
Telephone conversation
Last week during a hearing of a separate 1MDB audit report trial against Najib, Bakke had testified that Najib via the telephone call wanted him to not spend too much time thinking about past transactions that raised misgivings in the witness and to just focus on the proposed JV between 1MDB and PSI.
Ex-1MDB board chairperson Mohd Bakke SallehIn that trial, Bakke had also testified he was handed the telephone by businessperson Low Taek Jho (Jho Low), who was also present at the board meeting. Bakke added that Ismee was present at the time as well.
It is part of the prosecution’s case that the monies transferred out from 1MDB purportedly for the JV actually formed part of the convoluted monetary trail that ended up benefiting Najib.
The former prime minister’s defence team however contended that Najib had no knowledge of wrongdoing and that it was masterminded solely by Low and several members of 1MDB’s management team.
During today’s 1MDB graft hearing before judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah, Shafee also referred Ismee to Bakke’s testimony in the other trial.
The lawyer was grilling Ismee on whether Bakke - after the telephone call with Najib - actually told the board not to consider past transactions involving 1MDB and to only focus on the 1MDB-PSI JV deal.
Ex-1MDB board member Ismee IsmailIsmee replied that Bakke did not convey in much detail about the conversation with Najib, only that Bakke said the board needed to decide on the proposed JV.
Shafee: Bakke never said the prime minister (Najib) directed the board to do the deal. From his (Bakke) own words (to the board in 2009), he said the prime minister said the board is to consider the (1MDB-PSI) JV proposal and firm up with a decision. He (Najib) did not say what decision (the board ought to make) in this important project? Was that not the message conveyed by Bakke to the board?
Ismee: I got the impression that it was PM (Najib) who wanted it done.
Prosecution objects
At this juncture, deputy public prosecutor Ahmad Akram Gharib objected to Shafee’s line of questioning, stating that the questions amounted to asking Ismee his opinion about what Bakke was trying to say.
Sequerah then directed Najib’s defence team to rephrase the question into what was Ismee’s perception of what Bakke told him and the other members of the board then.
Shafee reworded the question and asked if what Ismee heard Bakke say was not the same as what Bakke testified he heard Najib allegedly telling him (Bakke), to which Ismee replied that only Bakke could answer that.
Proceedings before Sequerah will resume this afternoon.
Najib is on trial for four counts of abuse of power and 21 counts of money laundering involving RM2.28 billion of 1MDB’s funds.
Under criminal law, money laundering is the illegal process of making large amounts of money generated by criminal activity appear to have originated from a legitimate source.
Money from criminal activity is considered dirty, and the money laundering process ‘launders’ it to make it appear clean. - Mkini

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