A former 1MDB general counsel told the Kuala Lumpur High Court today that Najib Abdul Razak’s blessing was needed before any moves were made in 1MDB operations.
This is because he held three important positions in the company, Jasmine Loo said.
Loo, 50, said it was a practice, even before she joined the company, where everything needed to be referred to Najib – who held the position of the prime minister, finance minister as well as 1MDB’s chair of the board of advisers – before any project could be taken on by the sovereign wealth fund.
“It was a practice in 1MDB for everything to be referred to Najib first. In substance, it was one individual making all these decisions,” said Loo.
However, Najib’s counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah said there was a distinction between his client’s three roles and Loo, as a general counsel, should have known that Najib as the chairperson couldn’t decide without referring it first to the 1MDB board of directors.
“Instead, you purposely ignored this because you were part of a conspiracy to hoodwink 1MDB,” said Shafee.
Loo disagreed with Shafee’s suggestion and reiterated that Najib, as the prime minister, the finance minister, as well as the board chair, was the same individual, and his one approval would be the approval of all three roles.
“By the time I joined 1MDB, that was already the practice and we had been relying on professional company secretarial advisers. If they had other different opinions, they would have done it that way,” she said.
Loo further disagreed with the testimony made by former Goldman Sachs banker Tim Leissner during Roger Ng’s 1MDB trial in the New York court on how she was the key component who connected fugitive businessperson Low Taek Jho to the company.
Shafee: Are you aware that he said you were appointed basically to legalise documents of what is in fact, illegal?
Loo: I am not aware.
Shafee then proceeded to read an excerpt of Leissner’s testimony in the New York court, where the former banker stated Loo was unhappy at the amount of money she was about to receive from the 1MDB scheme as it was inadequate.
To this, Loo said: “I do not agree with any of the statements he made.”
Earlier, Loo told the High Court that she met with Low in China in 2017.
She said the meeting was to discuss a potential development project for a shopping centre in Thailand.
To a question from Shafee, during cross-examination, she said she did not meet with Low again after 2018.
In the five years that she was on the run, till July last year, she said she had moved about. From Thailand, she went to Cambodia, Hainan and Shenzen in China, and also Myanmar.
Loo said she had been ordered to move from Thailand to Cambodia by Low, who also told her not to interfere with his “plan” to negotiate with the Malaysian government.
“I felt that something bad would happen to me if I didn’t follow his orders… I didn’t think I could return to Malaysia safely.
“I spoke directly with him….he said something would happen to me if I returned to Malaysia, so I felt threatened. I didn’t want to put myself at risk even though I did nothing wrong,” she said.
Asked whether she lodged a police report against Low when she returned to Malaysia, she said she had yet to do so but would seek her lawyer’s advice on the matter.
Meanwhile, Loo told the court that she received several luxury items during her time at 1MDB, including a Richard Mille watch, and a Hermes handbag when she left the company.
Asked if she had ever gone on vacations, partied and gambled with Low at several places, including in Las Vegas, Loo said she had never denied this, adding that this was not unusual among close friends.
To this, Shafee said he had spoken to Low several times but had never been invited to join him on such trips.
“So, are you his close friend?”
Loo agreed with Shafee’s suggestion that Low had fully sponsored her trip to watch the 2014 Rio de Janeiro Fifa World Cup semi-final match between host Brazil and Germany.
She said, in a previous match in the quarter-finals, Low had brought along English football legend David Beckham, Brazilian supermodel Adriana Lima and Hollywood superstar Leonardo DiCaprio.
Loo described Low as a soft-spoken person whom she had never heard raise his voice until 2015.
Asked if Low had taken on a more brusque personality in 2015 after the 1MDB scandal became coming out, Loo said: “Yes.”
The trial before judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah continues on March 14.