KUALA LUMPUR, March 14 — Now-fugitive Low Taek Jho’s luxurious lifestyle and flashy spending as if it was "his grandfather’s money” should have caused 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) to be concerned as the company’s finances were on the decline, former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s lawyer suggested today.

During Najib’s trial over the alleged misappropriation of more than RM2 billion of 1MDB funds, Najib’s lead defence lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah chose to highlight Low’s personal life.

In cross-examining 1MDB’s former chief financial officer Azmi Tahir who is the prosecution’s 12th witness, Shafee claimed that Low was "splashing money like his grandfather’s money” and that news reports of Low’s lifestyle had started emerging since 2010.

Shafee today repeatedly suggested that 1MDB management should have been concerned about the expensive lifestyle of Low who is better known as Jho Low, but Azmi instead said he was concerned about subsequent news reports that suggested wrongdoing in terms of 1MDB’s transactions.

Agreeing that 1MDB personnel believed Low to be representing Najib in 1MDB affairs, Azmi explained that news reports about 1MDB caused him concern over whether the company’s transactions — which Low was involved in — were actually "something wrong” if Low was actually doing "something else”.

"The implication if anything that we executed actually was something wrong, that’s the thing I was most concerned about,” Azmi explained.

Instead of focusing on Low’s role in 1MDB transactions and deals, Shafee then continued to highlight reports of Low’s lifestyle, claiming that it represented the "tip of iceberg” and that it allegedly "speaks volume of something is seriously wrong”.

Responding to Shafee’s question on whether anyone condoned Low’s lifestyle, Azmi said Low’s social activities and parties — as highlighted by Shafee — was his "personal life” and said he did not know if anybody in government would have condoned it.

"The spending is close to insanity even by standards of billionaires, which would make everybody in 1MDB alert, standing on attention, what is Jho Low doing,” Shafee remarked, claiming that Low’s spending would obviously lead to suspicion about whether Low lacked honesty.

Shafee then referred to reports of Low having spent huge amounts of money on bottles of Cristal champagne, being spotted with individuals such as socialite Paris Hilton in parties, and owning a portfolio of luxurious properties in Singapore, the purchase of paintings by Monet and Van Gogh, and the purchase of a transparent acrylic piano for model Miranda Kerr.

At one point, Shafee asked: "I’m putting it to you, it would have been a concern of 1MDB that the person who is purportedly running 1MDB is having this sort of lifestyle.”

But Azmi pointed out that there are also politicians with "questionable” personal life, and that 1MDB personnel was only looking at Low in relation to the company 1MDB and not his personal life.

Shafee insisted that 1MDB should have been concerned over Low’s lifestyle as the company 1MDB was not doing well in terms of finance, but Azmi replied: Again that is his private life, we were only looking at him in relation to the company. I don’t know what source of wealth he has.”

"Yes, I was concerned about whether if any of the transactions we did and he was involved in or gave direction — to which we believed was on behalf of the shareholder — whether it was something else, that of course is a concern,” Azmi added.

Shafee insisted that 1MDB should have been concerned over Low’s lifestyle as the company 1MDB was not doing well in terms of finance. — Picture via Facebook

Shafee then again asked: "In the context of 1MDB going down, very badly managed, financially going down, weren’t you concerned the man you thought was supposed to be running behind the scene, the shadow director of 1MDB, was having this lifestyle?”

Azmi again highlighted that this was "two different things”, noting that he was concerned about 1MDB but that Low’s lifestyle was a separate matter, and later also said he had not seen many of the articles highlighted by Shafee.

Asked if Low’s lifestyle did not cause him suspicion over whether everything was not going right for 1MDB, Azmi said: "At that point in time, yes, I didn’t have suspicion, because to me, it’s private and if he’s wealthy, he could afford to do what he does.”

Azmi said that by the time that allegations had emerged of Low having bought a superyacht, he had thought this was "crazy” and said however that he would have expected the authorities to investigate this by then.

"As a whole, it looks as if these were allegations the authorities would investigate, we were happy for them to investigate, we have no issues with that,” he said, pointing out that the authorities were already investigating as subsequent reports of Low came out and agreed that "in hindsight” Low’s lifestyle had appeared highly suspicious.

Azmi also justified a 1MDB subsidiary’s transaction of US$790 million (RM3.3 billion) in 2012 which he had signed on by saying that it was in line with an agreement that had authorised him to do so.

"The transfer was not for his purposes, it was based on agreements, I didn’t know there was something else going on, I disagree with that,” Azmi later said in pointing out that the US$790 million transaction was not meant for Low but to fulfil an agreement that a 1MDB subsidiary had entered into.

Azmi disagreed with Shafee’s suggestion that 1MDB management had never raised questions about Low’s lifestyle due to their purported receiving of bribes from Low.

Low did not have an official role in 1MDB, but trial witnesses such as Azmi and former 1MDB CEO Mohd Hazem Abd Rahman had said they viewed Low to be Najib’s alleged right hand man, proxy and adviser for 1MDB affairs.

Najib’s 1MDB trial before High Court judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah was initially also scheduled to take place tomorrow and Wednesday, but is likely to only resume on Thursday as previously scheduled as Najib’s lawyers would be dealing with the Federal Court’s hearing tomorrow of his application to add in purported new evidence for the SRC appeal.

Najib is currently appealing his conviction in relation to the misappropriation of former 1MDB unit SRC International Sdn Bhd’s RM42 million.