Ex-CFO denies 1MDB dropped his name in lawsuit in exchange for incriminating Najib, doesn’t know why not charged

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 5 — A former chief financial officer of 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) today denied that the government-owned company had dropped him from a civil lawsuit in order for him to incriminate former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak in court.

Azmi Tahir, the 12th prosecution witness in Najib’s trial, said this while cross-examined by Najib’s lawyer Datuk Hariharan Tara Singh.

Hariharan today showed him court documents, which showed that 1MDB and its subsidiaries had initially included Azmi as one of the persons sued in a civil lawsuit filed last year, and that 1MDB and its subsidiaries had later on removed Azmi as one of the defendants.

Hariharan: I put it to you, you can agree or disagree, that your name was removed from the civil suit, so that you would give incriminating evidence against Datuk Seri Najib?

Azmi: Disagree.

Asked to refer to a list of witnesses that the prosecution planned to call for the 1MDB trial, Azmi agreed that those who were in the witness list appeared to have been removed from the list of defendants in 1MDB’s lawsuit later, while others such as 1MDB’s former CFO Radhi Mohamad are being sued.

Hariharan: Now, do you agree that the people who are not called as a witness, their name remained as defendants in the suit?

Azmi: It looks that way.

In August 2021, The Edge newspaper reported  that 1MDB and its four subsidiaries had dropped seven former 1MDB directors and former 1MDB management personnel — including Azmi — from a lawsuit, while retaining other defendants such as Najib, Radhi, 1MDB former deputy CFO Terence Geh Choh Heng, 1MDB former general counsel Jasmine Loo Ai Swan, Casey Tang Keng Chee, Vincent Beng Huat Koh, Kelvin Tan Kay Jin and Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil.

Hariharan then asked Azmi about the allegations in the 1MDB lawsuit. Azmi disagreed with the defence lawyer’s suggestion that he had dishonestly assisted now-fugitive Low Taek Jho or Jho Low to misappropriate billions of US dollars from 1MDB.

Azmi confirmed that he had his statement recorded by the police circa 2015/2016, and subsequently had his statements recorded by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) in subsequent years as part of the authorities’ investigations into 1MDB.

Asked by Hariharan if he was told by MACC officers recording his statement that the 1MDB “investigation was on Najib”, Azmi disagreed and said the anti-corruption officers just wanted to find out about the events that happened regarding 1MDB.

Even for investigations that took place after the 2018 general elections, Azmi confirmed that “there was no mention of who is going to be charged, it was just what happened here, who’s this, who’s that, but on the company.”

Asked who the 1MDB investigation was “aimed at”, Azmi said: “I didn’t get a sense of there being a target. There could be targets, because they were talking about Jho Low, Jasmine, so I don’t know who could be. I could also have been, but the questions to me were more about finding out about documents and what happened.”

Hariharan pointed out that other individuals such as Azmi’s deputy Terence Geh had been charged in relation to 1MDB and also stressed on Azmi’s responsibilities as the CFO or head of financial matters in 1MDB, but Azmi said he did not know why he had not been charged.

Hariharan: Do you agree that despite being the co-signatory as well as director of the subsidiaries, you were in charge of releasing the funds, yet there was no criminal charge against you?

Azmi: I don’t know why there are no criminal charges.

Among other things, Azmi disagreed with Hariharan’s suggestion that he was “ultimately responsible” as he was the head of finances of 1MDB and its subsidiaries as well as co-signatory of some of their bank accounts.

“Well, I was acting under instructions. I mean, I did not make those decisions myself,” he said.

Hariharan also suggested to Azmi that he had been entrusted with 1MDB funds, pointing out that the latter later delegated such duties to his deputy Geh.

But Azmi replied: “I’m not ultimately responsible, that’s why you have co-signatory and delegation of duties. It’s such a large company, the CFO doesn’t do everything.”

Azmi said he did not entirely have control over 1MDB’s finances as how funds would be raised or used for a planned power plant acquisition for example did not go through him for his input, adding that he worked in a “governance framework” in 1MDB where Low played a role and where such a framework was accepted by 1MDB superiors.

Azmi confirmed that Low has no official role in 1MDB, but added: “I sincerely believe he was representative of the shareholder Datuk Seri Najib. So in the course of interactions, he gave instructions, requests, suggestions, what not.”

Azmi disagreed with Hariharan’s suggestion that Low was not Najib’s representative, saying that this was not how 1MDB officials viewed it: “That is not what we understood.”

Hariharan also highlighted that Geh, Low and Loo were all charged and yet Azmi as the CFO was not charged, with Azmi then replying: “Again, I don’t know why some people were not charged, my CEO was not charged, my board was not charged, so I don’t know why they were charged and I was not charged.”

The 1MDB trial before High Court judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah resumes this afternoon, with Azmi expected to continue testifying.