KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 8 — Former 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) Chief Executive Datuk Shahrol Ibrahim Halmi agreed with the defence today that fugitive financier Low Taek Jho might have approached him for the job due to his lack of financial experience.
Testifying against Datuk Seri Najib Razak in the latter’s 1MDB corruption trial, Shahrol said “there is a possibility” that Low or Jho Low approached him to helm the firm’s predecessor, Terengganu Investment Authority (TIA) as he was new to investment fundraising.
Shahrol was agreeing with the suggestion posed by defence counsel Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah that Low had done so as part of his plan to defraud the sovereign wealth fund.
Shafee: Do you think that is why Jho Low appointed you? Because you did not have any financial experience.
Shahrol: I didn’t think so at the time.
Shafee: Now with hindsight?
Shahrol: That is a possibility.
Shahrol also agreed with Shafee’s suggestion that Low had strategically placed his supposed accomplices in the company such as Jasmine Loo and Casey Tang, among others, to help him with his scheme.
He explained that he had informed of his lack of financial experience to Low in 2009 when the latter had recommended him for the post of chief executive officer to the TIA board of directors.
However, despite declaring this fact openly, TIA board of directors and its royal patron, Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin, who was also the Yang di-Pertuan Agong at the time, had approved of his appointment said Shahrol.
“My appointment was decided by them, the shareholders and the board of directors. I am prepared to do my best. I did tell them that I have no experience in fundraising, but they still appointed me.
“If I am not qualified, those who hired me should know this. I had told Jho Low about this,’’ he said.
Shafee also asked whether Shahrol had managed to raise the issue to Sultan Mizan during their meeting on March 21, 2009, at Istana Terengganu, which the latter answered in the negative.
“During the meeting, His Highness was sitting in a meeting room in the Istana. I was brought there by Jho Low and he introduces me to His Highness.
“Tan Sri Azlan Zainol was also there and he told His Highness that he had known me for a long time and I was a good man.
“I was not given the opportunity to voice out the issue as I was not ready. It was the first time I was at the Istana, meeting the King,’’ he said.
Shahrol was referring to then TIA director and Employee Provident Fund CEO Tan Sri Azlan Zainol, whom he had an established rapport prior to his appointment.
Shahrol said Azlan would have been aware his lack of financial experience as he had provided the latter with his resume, asking for potential job opportunities elsewhere.
In his witness statement, Shahrol, who is a Stanford University engineering graduate, had repeatedly stated he was not familiar with high finance or international investments.
Prior to his appointment with TIA, Shahrol was a managing director with global business management firm Accenture.
