BN reps coached me for Public Accounts hearing, ex-1MDB CEO tells court

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 1 — Datuk Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi disclosed in court today that he had been aided by several Barisan Nasional (BN) lawmakers ahead of a 2015 inquiry by Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) into the alleged financial misappropriation from 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).

Testifying against Datuk Seri Najib Razak in the former prime minister’s corruption trial, Shahrol, who was a former 1MDB chief executive, told the High Court that a meeting was held at the home of Datuk Seri Ahmad Farid Ridzuan, who was at that time in charge of Najin’s image branding.

“The meeting, pre-PAC hearing was to prepare me for the kind of questions and post-hearing, was to discuss what the report was going to contain,” Shahrol said.

He added that the then PAC chief Datuk Seri Hassan Ariffin was also present during one of the meetings after a PAC hearing and shared details of the confidential report.

“He told me about the thoughts of the committee and what was going into the report,” Shahrol said.

Shahrol also revealed that flamboyant financier Low Taek Jho, better known as Jho Low, had provided him and the 1MDB board of directors with talking points should any of them be called for questioning by the authorities.

The pointers were mainly to downplay Najib’s and Low’s involvement in 1MDB, Shahrol said.

He added that the second narrative given by Low was for the sovereign wealth company to treat all negative news of it as a “political attack” towards Najib as the then prime minister.

Shahrol said that Low had also arranged a meeting between him and several other PAC members, including Datuk Seri Rahman Dahlan prior to a hearing in 2010.

“He had also arranged for me to meet with one or two of the BN members of the Public Accounts Committee before the actual hearing.

“I met with Rahman Dahlan, who was a member of the committee at that time and we talked about the kind of questions that the PAC would be asking,’’ he said.