.jpg "Datuk Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi is pictured at the Kuala Lumpur High Court July 16, 2020. u00e2u20acu201d Picture by Yusof Mat Isa")
KUALA LUMPUR, July 16 — Government-owned company 1Malaysia Development Berhad’s (1MDB) RM2.75 billion acquisition of a power plant firm was rushed through in 2012, as Low Taek Jho — said to be an adviser to Datuk Seri Najib Razak — had claimed that the then prime minister wanted the deal completed before the 13th general election, the court heard today.
Former 1MDB CEO Datuk Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi said this while testifying as the ninth prosecution witness against Najib in the former prime minister’s power abuse and money-laundering trial over 1MDB funds.
Shahrol was commenting on 1MDB’s RM2.75 billion purchase in 2012 of a 100 per cent stake in Mastika Lagenda Sdn Bhd, a company which held a 75 per cent stake in Genting Sanyen Power Sdn Bhd, which in turn owns the Genting Sanyen Kuala Langat Power Station.
Najib’s lawyer Wan Aizuddin Wan Mohammed today highlighted how 1MDB had chosen to get its directors to sign off on matters related to the RM2.75 billion acquisition via directors’ circulars resolutions, instead of having the board of directors physically meet where presentations could be made before the board gave its approval.
Shahrol agreed that this was unlike 1MDB’s previous acquisition of power plant operator Tanjong Energy Holdings Sdn Bhd, where the 1MDB board was given presentations by 1MDB’s financial adviser Goldman Sachs before making decisions on the proposal to buy Tanjong Energy.
Shahrol said the skipping of board meetings was partly due to the 1MDB board having already intended to further expand into the energy sector after acquiring Tanjong Energy by aiming next for Genting Sanyen, noting that Low had also driven the timeline by indicating that there was no time for the 1MDB board to hold meetings on the RM2.75 billion acquisition.
“I don’t remember exactly whether he gave a deadline in months or days, it was all as soon as possible. In the later half of 2012, Datuk Seri Najib was to call an election — GE13, that was held a year after in 2013.
“But at that time, there were already all sorts of speculation that Parliament was going to be dissolved. Jho even specifically told me Datuk Seri Najib wanted this done before the dissolution of Parliament because big decisions cannot be held when there’s a caretaker government. That was one of the reasons Jho conveyed to me why… in a rush,” he said.
While Najib’s lawyer Wan Aizuddin Wan Mohammed noted that those were “serious accusations” against his client, he did not proceed to further question Shahrol as it was 3.15pm sharp at that time.
Today, the High Court had — after receiving a letter from the Dewan Rakyat Speaker regarding the takwim or Parliament schedule — decided to hear Najib’s trial through the usual lunch break and end earlier at 3.15pm sharp to enable the Pekan MP to go to Parliament to deliver his speech at 3.30pm.
Previously, in his witness statement, Shahrol had himself noted his observation of the acquisition process for Mastika Lagenda as being more hasty than when 1MDB was acquiring Tanjong Energy Holdings Sdn Bhd, noting that all the approvals from the 1MDB board of directors for this newer deal were obtained only by individually asking the directors to sign directors’ circular resolutions instead of holding board meetings.
“This hasty situation was due to pressure from Jho Low who stated that the loans and guarantee from IPIC have to be sped up as there are factors of G-to-G (government-to-government) cooperation and it must also be settled before GE13 to ensure sufficient attention from Datuk Seri Najib before he becomes busy with campaigning,” Shahrol had said in his written witness statement. IPIC is Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund.
In August 2012, Najib signed his approval as finance minister on behalf of 1MDB’s shareholder MOF Inc, to approve 1MDB’s acquisition of Mastika Lagenda.
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Today, when asked who had come up with the proposed RM2.75 billion price for the Mastika Lagenda and Genting Sanyen assets acquisition, Shahrol claimed that this was driven by the Prime Minister’s Office in 2012.
“During this time, when we started this whole negotiation, pretty much all negotiations on funding structure was pretty much derived from PMO side, meaning Jho. I don’t who the PMO officer is who represented that side, because I remember having met only one time a senior Genting person, but all the info about pricing came to me via Jho,” he said.
When asked how he knew of a purported involvement from a representative allegedly from the PMO, Shahrol said this was due to the consistency with the talking points given by Low, adding that there was “nothing out of place” then.
Under cross-examination by Wan Aizuddin, Shahrol, however, agreed that he had never sat in a formal meeting with the alleged PMO representative to discuss the RM2.75 billion acquisition, further agreeing that he was basing the alleged involvement of PMO based on Low’s talking points.
“Yes, the talking points emailed to me, detailing the structure and so on, and everyone seemed to know what they were doing, consistent with the silo working method,” Shahrol said, adding however that he no longer has this talking point given by Low.
“No, not this one. Because in 2015, I was instructed to delete everything in the interest of purportedly protecting Datuk Seri Najib,” he said.
Previously, Shahrol had testified how 1MDB later lost over US$790 million in a transaction linked to the RM2.75 billion acquisition, after 1MDB paid out the US$790 million to a company now revealed to be a fake entity with a strikingly similar name to the actual Abu Dhabi firm Aabar Investments PJS.
On Day One of Najib’s trial over 1MDB funds, the prosecution had said this deal was part of the second phase of an elaborate scheme which allegedly resulted in money being diverted to Najib.
The prosecution had said it would show a total of US$30 million flowed through Aabar before allegedly reaching Najib’s account in 2012 under this second phase of the alleged scheme.
Najib’s 1MDB trial before High Court judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah resumes tomorrow morning.
