Tan Sri Mohd Bakke Salleh is pictured at the Kuala Lumpur High Court May 9, 2022. — Reuters pic
KUALA LUMPUR, May 9 — Tan Sri Mohd Bakke Salleh today said he had resigned as chairman of 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) in 2009 as a sign of protest, following his suspicions that “something wrong” was going on at the Finance Ministry-owned company.
Bakke said this while testifying as the 15th prosecution witness in former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s trial over the alleged misappropriation of more than RM2 billion of 1MDB funds.
Bakke also suspected that former finance minister Najib was involved in 1MDB affairs and that either Najib or his representative Low Taek Jho were the “higher level” who had instructed for US$700 million out of US$1 billion of 1MDB funds to be transferred out without the 1MDB board’s knowledge or agreement.
Bakke said he had personally prepared his official letter dated October 19, 2009 to inform Najib of his resignation as 1MDB chairman, and that no one had instructed him to resign.
“My resignation was due to the fact that the management of 1MDB refused to follow the instructions of the board of directors. As a chairman, I resigned as a sign of protest and I did not want to be involved in any discussions and decisions regarding 1MDB,” he told the High Court today.
Before sending in his resignation letter, Bakke said he had first sent a text message to Najib to inform him of the 1MDB management’s failure to follow the 1MDB board’s instructions on several matters relating to a joint venture deal involving US$1 billion of 1MDB funds, but that Najib did not reply.
“I did not receive any response from Datuk Seri Najib. It did not cross my mind to report to any relevant authorities on the financial misconduct of the management of 1MDB because I assumed that I had already done so through my SMS sent to Datuk Seri Najib,” he said.
“I hoped Datuk Seri Najib will take necessary actions against the management of 1MDB if he found any misconduct on their part.
“Since my concerns did not get Datuk Seri Najib’s attention as he did not reply my SMS, I had a feeling that he was involved and something wrong was happening without my knowledge. This was one of my main reasons I decided to resign as Chairman and a member of 1MBD’s board of directors,” he added.
Later when asked by lead prosecutor Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram, Bakke confirmed that this was not the first time he had sent an SMS to Najib and that the latter would usually respond to the text messages, agreeing that he found it unusual when Najib did not respond on this occasion.
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