KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 12 — AmInvestment Bank’s former managing director Kok Tuck Cheong today said he was baffled with the presence of Low Taek Jho — now a fugitive best known as Jho Low — during a lunch meet with individuals from 1Malaysia Development Berhad’s (1MDB) Terengganu Investment Authority (TIA).
Kok said this while testifying as the 40th prosecution witness in former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s trial over the misappropriation of RM2.28 billion of 1MDB funds.
Asked by Najib’s lead defence lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah whether he knew Low, Kok said he was introduced to Low by AmBank’s relationship banking division’s director Chan Wan Seong at a luncheon.
Saying he had only met Low once at this luncheon which he recalled to be at Mandarin Oriental Hotel and possibly in 2009, Kok said there were at least six to seven people present, including officials from TIA.
Asked what Low was introduced as, Kok said: “There was never any formal introduction to him. It’s just ‘by the way, this is Jho Low’ and this chap did not talk much.”
Shafee: So you didn’t know?
Kok: Ya, I was baffled.
Shafee: Baffled at this lunch? So he was the only outsider apart from the bankers?
Kok: No, I think there were some TIA people as well, I think. I remember it was at least six or seven people.
Asked by Shafee if he had the impression that the lunch had something to do with the RM5 billion Islamic bond or Islamic medium term notes that TIA issued in 2009 with AmBank as the bond’s lead arranger, Kok said it was just a casual lunch.
“You know luncheons, there is never any serious discussions about business, it’s about general markets and general opportunities. I mean there was no heavy-duty, serious, focused subject on the table to be deliberated over. It’s just a casual lunch, hi, bye, hi, bye,” Kok said.
When asked by Shafee if he knew that Low was at one time regarded as an adviser to TIA, Kok said: “His name surfaces but it was never an official or concrete statement of fact.”
Shafee then said: “But as a matter of fact, Jho Low was officially on board as adviser to TIA but not very long, but officially.”
Kok replied: “Not when I was meeting him.”
When Shafee asked if “it was not significant then”, Kok replied with a firm “no”.
On the first day of trial, the prosecution said it would prove that RM2,282,937,678.41 or over RM2.28 billion of 1MDB funds had entered Najib’s personal bank accounts from all four phases of the 1MDB scheme, including via companies allegedly linked to Low’s associate Eric Tan.
Najib’s 1MDB trial before High Court judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah resumes tomorrow.
