Datuk Seri Najib Razak arrives at the Kuala Lumpur High Court October 26, 2021. – Picture by Miera Zulyana
KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 18 — Any directors of the government-owned 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) would probably have to give up their positions if they had said “no” to what the prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak wanted, the High Court heard today.
Tan Sri Ismee Ismail, a former director in 1MDB, today appeared to suggest that 1MDB board members would not be able to disagree with Najib’s request.
Ismee was testifying as the 13th prosecution witness in Najib’s trial involving money laundering and power abuse charges in relation to more than RM2 billion of funds misappropriated from 1MDB.
Lead prosecutor Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram today zoomed in on the 1MDB board’s September 26, 2009 meeting, where Low Taek Jho — popularly known as Jho Low and seen by Ismee as Najib’s adviser for 1MDB — was present and had handed over his handphone to 1MDB chairman Tan Sri Mohd Bakke Salleh.
Yesterday, Ismee said Bakke had then informed everyone at the meeting that “PM call” and left to take the call, and that Bakke had returned several minutes later and informed the board that he had just spoke to Najib who wanted the board to speed up its decision on a proposed joint venture with PetroSaudi International Ltd (PSI).
Despite having only been shown the proposal paper for the 1MDB-PSI joint venture idea just days earlier in a September 18, 2009 1MDB board meeting, the 1MDB directors had at the September 26 meeting agreed to approve the joint venture despite reservations and despite having wanted more studies to be carried out first, Ismee had said yesterday.
Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram arrives at the Kuala Lumpur High Court February 10, 2021. — Picture by Shafwan Zaidon
Today, Sri Ram asked Ismee if the 1MDB board members could have said no.
Sri Ram: My question to you is, when Tan Sri Bakke told the meeting that the prime minister wants us to go ahead, were you in a position as a member of the board to say no?
Ismee: I guess at that time, I guess if the board members say no to the wishes of the prime minister, I guess we just have to leave as board members.
Ismee went on to explain how the proposed 1MDB-PetroSaudi deal was seen as a government-to-government deal then between the Malaysian government and the Saudi Arabian government.
“I think if I can recall correctly at the moment of time in 2009, when Datuk Seri Najib had just recently become prime minister, the perspective on my part, the excitement, the expectation was high, and I believed we wanted to do the deal to fulfil the prime minister’s wishes.
“So that’s why due to the urgency, we tried to put all the conditions to ensure the G2G is really airtight, so that is the position I believed the board took then.
“And personally in 2009, being CEO of Tabung Haji, I’m very sensitive about the relationship to the Saudi government. That time pun, I myself felt excited, we can enhance the relationship between Malaysia and Saudi,” he said.
Tabung Haji is a fund for Malaysia’s Muslim pilgrims, while holy sites for Muslim pilgrimages are located in Saudi Arabia.
Ismee agreed with Sri Ram however that the conditions that the 1MDB board had set for the joint venture had not been met and had been violated.
As for the funds that were taken out of 1MDB, Ismee confirmed that he did not receive any of these funds and further confirmed that he had not received any money from Low.
Yesterday, Ismee had also said the 1MDB directors might have asked the 1MDB management to postpone the joint venture to enable further studies to be carried out instead of approving it on September 26, 2009, if Najib had not intervened and given instructions to Bakke and the 1MDB board at that meeting.
Ismee had yesterday also said the 1MDB board of directors does have the powers to stop or reject the proposed joint venture with PSI but noted that the chairman of 1MDB’s board of advisers — who was Najib as the prime minister then — has the powers under the 1MDB company constitution’s Article 117 to override their decision and could also appoint new directors if dissatisfied with any of the directors.