This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly on March 4, 2024 - March 10, 2024

WAS Jasmine Loo Ai Swan a “key component” in the heist of billions of dollars belonging to 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB), a member of the inner circle, abettor and close confidante of fugitive financier Low Taek Jho (Jho Low), the mastermind, as alleged by some quarters?

Or was she, like many others, happy to go along with the top-down decision-making process, unaware of what was going on in the government-owned strategic investment company, only to be unwittingly caught up in the unravelling of the enormous theft?

Testifying last week at the 1MDB-Tanore trial of former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, the former general counsel of the company acknowledged she was a “close friend” of Jho Low but denied she had aided in the siphoning of funds from 1MDB.

On the stand as the prosecution’s 50th witness, Loo — who said she was already overseas before the historic May 2018 general election that threw out Najib and his coalition government — insisted she had not been derelict in her duties but had merely worked per established practices at the company.

In his cross-examination of Loo over the past week, lead defence counsel Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah has pushed the narrative that the former lawyer was Jho Low’s “number one henchman” and that she had intentionally flouted company rules as a participant in a conspiracy to steal 1MDB funds.

Loo, who was general counsel from May 2011 to November 2013, testified that she was merely following company practice where Najib’s “blessings” were needed for any major 1MDB undertaking — a practice established even before she joined the wholly-owned company of Minister of Finance Incorporated (MoF Inc).

Citing the strategic development firm’s Memorandum and Articles of Association (M&A), which can be considered to be a company’s “constitution”, Shafee pointed out that Najib served a series of roles, including as sole shareholder (in his capacity as finance minister), chairman of the board of advisers and as the then prime minister.

However, he noted that when it came to the documentation of 1MDB’s decisions, which specific role Najib was fulfilling was neither distinguished nor indicated clearly, which he said pointed to Loo having not performed her duties as 1MDB’s in-house lawyer due to her alleged failure to advise the company on the terms of its M&A.

Shafee: “But that is your job.”

Loo: “That is not my job. The practice was to refer to the PM of Malaysia who is also the BoA (board of advisers) chairman.”

Loo reiterated 1MDB’s “top-down approach” where everything needed to be “floated up” to Najib for his blessing before any project could be taken on — unlike the established norm of other companies, where the shareholder would be advised by the board of directors on a decision they had arrived at.

“[My impression was] Whatever 1MDB was going to undertake, needed the blessing [of Najib] both [in his role as] PM of Malaysia and chairman of the board of advisers. So to me, that indicated that whenever 1MDB was going to undertake, it needed to have [Najib’s] endorsement,” she said.

Although there were three different roles, she agreed that essentially one and the same person — Najib — had served the three roles.

Previous witnesses — Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) investigating officer, Nur Aida Arifin, former 1MDB CEOs Mohd Hazem Abdul Rahman and Datuk Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi — have also testified that Najib’s go-ahead superseded the board of directors’ instructions.

While on the stand, Loo also testified that although Jho Low did not have any official role within 1MDB, she, like some other members of the management, had taken instructions from him as she believed he was following Najib’s orders.

In an attempt to poke holes into Loo’s credibility as a witness, Shafee pointed to the many luxury gifts, trips and perks that Loo had enjoyed as part of Jho Low’s inner circle.

These included travel to Brazil for the 2014 World Cup, a Formula One race in Abu Dhabi, skiing in Canada and decadent parties in Las Vegas, US, where she mingled with Hollywood celebrities.

Loo admitted that Jho Low was a “close friend” and that he would invite other “common friends” for these outings, which he had described as “family and friends” trips. Hollywood A-listers including Leonardo DiCaprio, football royalty David Beckham, Brazilian model Adriana Lima and songstress Alicia Keys also attended these outings.

Shafee: “You know he has contacted me before, he never invited me.”

Loo: “Are you his close friend?”

Shafee: “So, you are a close friend?”

Loo: “I don’t deny it.”

Loo confirmed that she received a Richard Mille watch and Hermès handbag, the former item costing a minimum of RM500,000 and up to RM3 million, Shafee pointed out. Loo said she had surrendered the watch to the authorities.

Loo said she had returned “everything” linked to 1MDB to the US Department of Justice (DoJ), which would later be returned to Malaysia. In terms of the specifics of what “everything” constitutes, Shafee has asked the witness to reproduce the terms of the settlement when the trial resumes next month.

The former lawyer said she was not aware that the monies she received were from 1MDB but thought they were remuneration for work done in her previous Jho Low-linked employment at UBG Bhd. She said she only realised that 1MDB money had been stolen when she read the DoJ’s report or claim in 2016.

Loo said that she believed that the US$5 million she received, was an ex gratia payment for her work at UBG but could not recall if the money came in a lump sum or around which period. When pressed by Shafee, she said that the sum was deposited around 2011 and 2012, into her Credit Suisse account in Singapore.

Loo maintained this stance, even when Shafee referred to Tim Leissner’s testimony during the Roger Ng trial in 2022 in the US. The former Goldman Sachs Southeast Asia head, who was the star witness at the trial, testified that Loo was a “key component of the 1MDB-Jho Low connection” who worked on “pretty much all” the transactions and structuring terms at the strategic development company.

Leissner also said that he would go through Loo or former 1MDB chief financial officer Terence Geh Choh Heng to get to Jho Low. He testified that Loo received money from the 1MDB transactions and that Jho Low confirmed this to him along with Loo herself.

“She expressed this to me in a meeting I had with her in Singapore, where she was waiting for her money to arrive in a Credit Suisse account that she had and she felt that money she was about to receive and waiting for was also not adequate,” he testified during the Ng trial in New York.

Loo however denied the allegations in Leissner’s testimony which, in addition to Geh, also implicated other individuals including Eric Tan Kim Leong @ Fat Eric, and former 1MDB executive director Casey Tang Keng Chee.

“I don’t agree with any of the statements he has made. They are not true,” she said.

Asked by Shafee if she had lodged any report on this, Loo said that although she was aware of Ng’s trial as reported by the press, she had not come across the specific allegations the lawyer was referring to.

In September, the police said Loo had helped identify assets worth over RM93.2 million purchased using 1MDB monies. Loo is still being investigated by other agencies over 1MDB.

The 50-year-old also testified that while abroad she was “moved” between countries in the region — Thailand, Cambodia, China and Myanmar — while waiting for Jho Low to negotiate a deal with the Pakatan Harapan government.

She reiterated that she had remained abroad as she felt threatened by Jho Low, who she claimed had warned Loo not to “spoil” his negotiation plans.

Shafee is expected to resume his cross-examination of Loo when the trial resumes on March 14 before presiding judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah.

In this trial, Najib faces four counts of abuse of power for using his position as then prime minister, finance minister and chairman of 1MDB’s board of advisers to receive gratification worth RM2.27 billion. He also faces 21 money laundering charges.

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