This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly on September 4, 2023 - September 10, 2023
FORMER Bank Negara Malaysia governor Tan Sri Zeti Akhtar Aziz’s testimony over the past two weeks revealed that former attorney general Tan Sri Apandi Ali refused to charge three 1MDB senior executives despite the central bank’s recommendations that criminal action be taken against them. However, he was quick to intervene and reduce the penalty recommended by Bank Negara to be levied on the state-owned entity for breaches of banking regulations.
Zeti, who has grabbed the headlines recently as the 46th prosecution witness in Najib’s 1MDB-Tanore criminal trial, revealed that Bank Negara had sent an investigation paper to Apandi on Aug 13, 2015, with the recommendation to charge 1MDB and three of its senior officers.
Having sat as part of a special task force in 2015 to investigate the dubious goings-on at 1MDB, she revealed that Bank Negara had given the names of three members of 1MDB’s management, who were recommended to be charged together with former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, to the Attorney General’s Chambers (AGC).
Najib’s lawyer Tan Sri Shafee Abdullah, during cross-examination of Zeti, had asked her who these senior officers were, to which she replied: “Shahrol the CEO, Casey Tang and Nik Faisal. These are the three.”
She was referring to 1MDB’s former CEO Datuk Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi, former executive director for business development Casey Tang Keng Chee and former chief investment officer Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil.
Zeti testified on the stand that Bank Negara had recommended that the three be charged for false declarations to the central bank when applying for permission to send US$1.83 billion out of the country over 2009 to 2011.
She said Bank Negara had also given all relevant information about Najib’s bank accounts to law enforcement agencies.
However, despite the investigation paper, Apandi, who had just taken over as AG in July 2015, had not acted on it. Instead, he decided on Sept 11, 2015, to classify Bank Negara’s investigation paper as “No Further Action” despite what Zeti described as “damning evidence”.
Of the three people she named, only Shahrol is in the country while Tang and Nik Faisal are still at large, having left Malaysia in 2018 just before the 14th general election.
Shahrol has featured heavily in the 1MDB trial, testifying as a key prosecution witness. He also testified in Najib’s SRC International trial where the former premier was found guilty of all seven charges against him and has currently finished one year of his 12-year jail sentence.
Interestingly, SRC International, a subsidiary of 1MDB, withdrew a civil suit against Shahrol in 2021, with no liberty to file afresh, at the High Court.
He was initially sued as part of 22 legal actions taken by SRC and 1MDB against various personalities and entities who had purportedly defrauded the state-owned companies, whether knowingly or unknowingly.
In another instance, Zeti revealed that the then-AG had intervened to 1MDB’s benefit after Bank Negara recommended that the finance ministry-owned entity be fined RM23 million — also for making false declarations relating to its transmission of US$1.83 billion out of Malaysia from 2009 to 2011.
Zeti testified that the AG had once again stepped in and reduced the fine to RM15 million.
While she did not mention the name of the AG, Apandi Ali was serving as AG during the period 1MDB was fined. He served from July 27, 2015 to June 4, 2018.
While Zeti did not mention when the fine was imposed, however, her witness statement stated that on Aug 14, 2015, pursuant to Bank Negara’s legislation, the central bank proceeded to revoke the three permissions granted to 1MDB and directed it to repatriate back to Malaysia all funds that had been illegally and falsely remitted abroad. She added that a press statement was issued regarding Bank Negara’s action on Oct 9, 2015.
She said approval had to be obtained by the AGC before Bank Negara could proceed with the fine and that 1MDB had paid the RM15 million compound on May 25, 2016.
“In order to impose the fine on 1MDB, we needed the consent of the attorney general … The attorney general reduced the fine recommended by us (Bank Negara),” said Zeti.
She agreed with Shafee that, to her knowledge, Najib had not interfered to reduce the fine.
Zeti dismisses allegations of ‘closeness’ to Low
Over the past two weeks, lead defence counsel Tan Sri Shafee Abdullah’s cross-examination of former Bank Negara Malaysia governor Tan Sri Zeti Akhtar Aziz in the ongoing 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB)-Tanore trial of former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak has seen a number of testy exchanges between the two septuagenarians, with Shafee implying that Zeti had been put in an awkward position as head of the central bank, and she flatly denying the allegations.
One narrative that Shafee has been trying to put forth is that Zeti’s family was “close” to fugitive financier Low Taek Jho. So close, he ventured, that Low even cooked pasta for Zeti’s family at her home — a contention that Zeti dismissed as “ridiculous and preposterous”.
In an exchange of rapid-fire back and forth, the senior lawyer also insinuated that Low had used his link to The Wharton School — the business school of the University of Pennsylvania — to get friendly with Zeti’s husband, Datuk Dr Tawfiq Ayman, who is an alumnus of the Ivy League institution of higher learning.
Zeti, who helmed the central bank for almost 16 years, was steadfast in her denial of Shafee’s assertions.
On the stand on Aug 15, Shafee had asked the prosecution’s 46th witness if she knew the fugitive financier, to which Zeti replied that she knew of him, but had “no association with him at all”.
Shafee then went on to insinuate that Low was close to Zeti’s family, even to the extent that he had cooked for the family over the weekends.
Shafee: Jho Low became close to your husband, and was in the habit of coming in the weekend to your house, where he would cook pasta for the family.
Zeti: [That is] ridiculous and preposterous!
The senior lawyer then went on to say that Low, who is a Wharton business school dropout, had used this link to get close to Zeti’s husband.
“That is not correct,” Zeti asserted sharply.
She also denied allegations that Low and her husband were business partners.
Shafee: I’m putting it to you that Jho Low was close to your family and your husband, and [they] were business partners.
Shafee, 71, also asked Zeti, 76, about an alleged conversation between her and Najib where Low’s name had come up, although he did not provide any specific dates for the purported conversation.
Shafee: [Do] you remember an occasion when you met the [former] PM, and one of the subjects you discussed, and this matter came from [you] unsolicited, [was that] Jho Low was fond of giving you expensive presents, and you said ‘I accepted them but returned them’.
Zeti: I have never received any gifts from anyone, including Jho Low. I don’t recall any discussions relating to gifts.
Shafee then brought up Zeti’s residence in Bukit Tunku when she was the central bank governor. She affirmed that she lived there and that it was close to Najib’s Langgak Duta residence.
Shafee insinuated that Low would attend meetings at Najib’s residence, but would leave early, saying that he had to meet Zeti. The prosecution witness, however, said she was unaware of this.
Shafee: There were occasions when Jho Low had meetings with others at the [then] PM’s residence.
Shafee: Every time [there were] meetings, he would excuse himself, because he said [he had] to go and see Zeti. [Najib] told you this?
In the course of the trial, other witnesses alluded to Low’s tendency to “name drop”. Former AmBank relationship manager Joanna Yu testified during proceedings last December that the fugitive financier would “name drop” to show off the famous people he purportedly knew.
Yu, the prosecution’s 41st witness testified that Low had mentioned he had meetings with Zeti, Najib and some Middle-Eastern leaders, including Jordan’s Queen Rania Al-Abdullah.
During cross-examination on Aug 29, Shafee also pushed the line of questioning that former AmBank group managing director (MD), Ashok Ramamurthy had sent Zeti updates of Najib’s accounts.
Zeti denied this, adding that she had only met Ashok once when he took over the position of group MD. She said former MD Cheah Tek Kuang introduced him to her during a courtesy call. She did not specify the date of the meeting but it was reported that Ashok took over as group MD in 2012.
However, the senior lawyer cut short his questions as the prosecution and the defence clashed over an alleged statement recorded by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) from Ashok in Singapore.
The prosecution maintained that there was no such statement and that Ashok was not even on the list of witnesses in the trial. The defence’s stance was that such a document existed and that they wanted to question the investigation officer in the case before resuming Zeti’s cross.
Zeti was released from the witness stand temporarily. But there is little doubt that the testy exchanges between the defence counsel and the witness will continue when she resumes the stand at a later date.
Najib is on trial for four counts of abuse of power and 21 counts of money laundering involving RM2.28 billion of 1MDB funds.
The trial before judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah continues on Sept 18.
Save by subscribing to us for
your print and/or
digital copy.
