This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly on February 19, 2024 - February 25, 2024

FOR the more than five years that she was out of the country, former 1Malaysia Development Bhd general counsel Jasmine Loo Ai Swan feared she might suffer the same fate as former PetroSaudi International Ltd (PSI) executive Xavier Justo — imprisonment in Thailand.

In her testimony in the Kuala Lumpur High Court as the 50th prosecution witness in former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s trial for the misappropriation of 1MDB’s RM2.27 billion, Loo, 50, also claimed that fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho, better known as Jho Low, had threatened to make her “life a living hell” if she returned to Malaysia.

Describing her life overseas — while she abided by Jho Low’s request for time to resolve 1MDB issues — as “deplorable”, Loo related that the fugitive businessman paid her US$2,500 a year through third parties while she was living in Bangkok.

She returned to Malaysia on July 7 last year after she had settled her case with the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and completed restitution of 1MDB funds, which she asserts she had been unaware were from the Minister of Finance Inc-owned entity.

Thus, her two-day testimony last week since Tuesday was highly anticipated because it was her first public appearance while “in the custody of law enforcement authorities” to testify against Najib, who is facing four counts of abuse of power and 21 counts of money laundering.

Despite her presence in Malaysia, Loo continued to elude media lenses, as she discreetly made her way into the court complex via a different entrance.

The former 1MDB general counsel’s testimony came on the back of Najib’s royal pardon late last month that halved his 12-year jail sentence and reduced his RM210 million fine to RM50 million, after being convicted in the SRC International Sdn Bhd case.

Loo’s testimony cemented earlier witnesses’ court testimonies on how 1MDB was managed in a top-down approach in which all major investments and financial decisions were implemented after obtaining Najib’s blessings. Najib was also Minister of Finance and chairperson of the 1MDB advisory board at the time.

In court, Loo, who had joined 1MDB in May 2011, related how she had to prepare statutory documents, such as 1MDB’s Special Rights Redeemable Preference (SRRP) shareholder resolution, Minute by Representative of Holding Company Relating to Proceedings of Subsidiary Company pursuant to Section 147 (6) of the Companies Act (MR) and directors’ circular resolution (DCR).

The 1MDB board would decide on the investments, she said, after it had seen the SRRP signed by Najib and after the SRRP, MR and DCR were collected.

“The letters, including the SRRP, would go to Najib’s office to get his blessing as 1MDB shareholder (through MoF Inc) and the directors would sign the DCR after seeing the SRRP and MR.

“Sometimes, the SRRP was dated and sometimes not. When Jho Low wanted to see Najib, he would inform me to date the SRRP and MR like the two documents that were signed on Feb 25, 2013.

“At other times [when it was not dated], Jho Low did not know when he would meet with Najib to get his signature and asked for it to be left blank. Later, when it was signed, Jho Low would tell me when the SRRP and MR would be dated and it would be typed to coincide with the DCR,” she said in reply to questions from deputy public prosecutor (DPP) T Deepa Nair.

Prior to Loo’s testimony, former 1MDB CEOs Datuk Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi and Mohd Hazem Abd Rahman and, recently, the 1MDB investigating officer from the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission Nur Aida Arifin had also verified the top-down approach in the company, where Nur Aida described such a practice as not normal and did not follow corporate governance.

This practice was seen in 1MDB’s sham investments with PSI and also in the acquisition of independent power producers by issuing bonds to finance the purchases.

Loo also said this practice had to be followed because, according to Article 117 of 1MDB’s Memorandum & Articles of Association, the sovereign wealth fund needed Najib’s approval as the prime minister for large and important projects that would have financial implications for the government.

“The board of directors would agree with Najib’s decisions because the practice at 1MDB was managed in a top-down approach,” she said, adding this was because MoF Inc was 1MDB’s sole shareholder and Najib was the finance minister.

During her testimony, Loo described how Jho Low was seen as the former premier’s proxy.

“After I prepared the documents, I did not know how Jho Low obtained Najib’s signature.

“Jho Low would use his influence as a person who was close to the then prime minister, that is, Najib. His actions were as if he wanted to be portrayed as the proxy of Malaysia’s PM, who is chairman of the 1MDB board of advisers.”

She added that Jho Low was also seen in possession of the yellow blank letterheads of the Prime Minister’s Office, and she saw them being used.

“For example, I have seen a letter from the Prime Minister’s Office regarding the appointment of [former 1MDB CEO] Hazem Rahman, which Jho Low prepared at his home in Jalan Kia Peng, Kuala Lumpur, and, according to him, he would take it to [Najib] to be signed. Then, the same letter was signed and sent to the 1MDB office and Hazem Rahman was [subsequently] appointed,” she said.

As word was getting around that the DOJ investigations in 2015 and 2016 showed large funds in Najib’s accounts, Loo said she had asked Jho Low about the matter and he convinced her that the transactions were legitimate.

She added that Jho Low told her the money was for Najib’s political purposes in Barisan Nasional and Umno.

“After I pressured him further on this, Jho Low told me not to worry, and that he would handle it and I need not take any action, as he would handle it all.

“Jho Low also said that if anything happened to him, he possessed the evidence that everything he had done was according to Najib’s request and knowledge,” she said.

Loo claimed her signature was misused in the transfer of a portion of the huge amount into Najib’s AmBank account from Tanore Finance Corp, a company controlled by Jho Low’s right-hand man Eric Tan Kim Loong.

Saying she was upset that the DOJ had named her in 2016 as one of the signatories from Tanore Finance, Loo asserted that she did not know about the matter but remembered going with Jho Low and Tan to Falcon Bank in Zurich, Switzerland, in October 2012.

Relating what transpired there, Loo said Tan had given her power of attorney over his account if he passed away.

“I complied with Eric Tan’s request [to be carried out] only if he passed away. Following that, the bank officer handed me the power of attorney documents for Eric Tan and I signed them. At that time, there was no name of the company that Eric Tan had chosen. I signed the blank document, as the officer said they would fill in the particulars after the opening of the account was completed and the name of the company was chosen.

“[It was only after] reading the DOJ report in the media [that I came to] know that the Tanore Finance account was in Falcon Private Bank Singapore, and the documents that I had signed were in Singapore and the process to add my name was done by Jho Low.”

She said she was angry upon reading the report, as she had not dealt with any officer from Falcon Private Bank in Singapore or Tanore Finance, as she had dealt only with Falcon Private Bank in Zurich.

“[It was only] as the news broke [that I discovered] that the documents I had signed in Zurich were abused by Falcon Bank, Eric Tan and Jho Low. After I repeatedly tried to get an explanation from Jho Low, he told me Falcon Bank and its CEO Eduardo Leemann knew that I was not involved in the Tanore Finance account or Eric Tan’s account and that I should not be worried,” Loo said.

Following concerns voiced by Ihsan Perdana Sdn Bhd managing director Datuk Dr Shamsul Anwar Sulaiman and Yayasan Rakyat 1Malaysia project director Dennis See, Loo said, when various parties started to question the source of Najib’s funds in his private accounts, she saw one of the four “Arab donation” letters from Prince Saud Abdulaziz Al Saud being drafted.

Loo said she saw Jho Low and his now-deceased associate Kee Kok Thiam draft the donation letter in early 2015 in London, and it was backdated.

“I saw Kee preparing a draft of the donation letter from Prince Saud on a computer screen at the business centre at the Mayfair Hotel London. The letter prepared by Kee was related to the donation from Prince Saud Abdulaziz Al-Saud to [Najib].

“The value of the donation at that point, I am not sure. I saw at that time that the draft did not have a signature and I was not sure when the letter was sent to [Najib]. Therefore, I believe the date written on this letter was backdated,” she said.

The letter, which has been tendered as evidence in the 1MDB trial, was dated June 1, 2014.

Najib maintained that the funds that entered his account were donations from the Saudi kingdom.

Shamsul and See had previously testified during the SRC International trial that they did not know the transfers into Najib’s account were originally from the company.

Loo completed her testimony for the prosecution last week and is likely to be cross-examined by Najib’s lead counsel Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah in the coming days.

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