Ex-1MDB CEO says removed from post due to ‘discomfort’ over speedy money transactions

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 1 — Datuk Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi, a former chief executive of scandal-riddled 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), told the High Court today that his removal from the position came after voicing concerns over the unreasonably rapid transactions involving up to billions of ringgit.

Testifying against former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, the 49-year-old Shahrol said he took on the job as 1MDB CEO in 2009 but was ordered to move to the Performance Management and Delivery Unit (Pemandu), the government’s efficiency unit, on March 15, 2013.

“I suspected I was taken out from 1MDB as at that time I had raised much feelings of my discomfort towards the financial transactions that were all carried out speedily,” he said during the corruption trial.

Throughout his testimony in the trial, Shahrol had highlighted how the major financial “investments” and deals were carried out with great haste under instructions from businessman Low Taek Jho and with Najib allegedly displaying similar urgency through speedy approvals.

According to Shahrol, the haste resulted in 1MDB’s loss of billions of ringgit due, apparently, to insufficient oversight of business entities whether controlled by Low or linked to the Penang-born.

Shahrol said he however remained a director of 1MDB to manage perception.

“However, I was still on the 1MDB board of directors at that time, with the reason given by Jho Low to manage optics,” he said.

When the 1MDB financial scandal broke in 2015, 1MDB directors could not quit until replacements were in place, Shahrol said.

“After the 1MDB issue kecoh in 2015 and 2016, the 1MDB board of directors unanimously proposed to Datuk Seri Najib to resign but we were ordered to stay on as board of directors, until the new board of directors was appointed in 2016.

Shahrol confirmed today that a new board was appointed in 2016, which was also when he stopped becoming a 1MDB director.

Shahrol said he is now unemployed.

Last week, Shahrol had said Low had at the end of 2012 asked if he was interested to shift to Pemandu, adding that he had then told Low that he felt that there was still much to do in 1MDB, including development projects such as Tun Razak Exchange and Bandar Malaysia.

Shahrol said he was then surprised with a sudden announcement during a 1MDB board meeting in early 2013, with 1MDB then chairman Tan Sri Lodin Wok Kamaruddin notifying the board that he would be transferred to Pemandu.

Shahrol is the ninth prosecution witness in the Najib’s trial, which is now in its 16th day and will resume next Monday.

Najib’s ongoing 1MDB trial involves 25 criminal charges — four counts of abusing his position for his own financial benefit totalling almost RM2.3 billion allegedly originating from 1MDB and the resulting 21 counts of money-laundering.