PUTRAJAYA (Feb 12): The sister of Terengganu’s Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin told the High Court on Wednesday that she was the one who had introduced fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho (Jho Low) to her brother, which was how 1Malaysia Development Bhd’s (1MDB) former iteration, the Terengganu Investment Authority (TIA), had come to fruition.

Testifying as a subpoenaed witness in former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s defence at the 1MDB-Tanore trial, Datuk Tengku Rahimah Sultan Mahmud said that she had first met Jho Low around 2008, when she was introduced to him by Datuk Syed Ahmad Alwee Alsree, the son-in-law of the then-chief minister of Sarawak Tun Taib Mahmud. Syed Ahmad Alwee was the chief executive officer of Cahya Mata Sarawak Bhd (KL:CMSB).

Tengku Rahimah said that this was a casual introduction, and that they had spoken about Jho Low’s role in assisting Abu Dhabi state investment firm Mubadala Investment Company to acquire a stake in RHB Bank Bhd (KL:RHBBANK).

She said that the meeting took place in Jho Low’s impressive KLCC office, and she was “very impressed by his calm demeanour and intelligence”.

“What stood out most was his ability to articulate and clarify his vision and ideas with remarkable clarity, making his presentation highly persuasive and convincing. Despite his confidence, he was not pushy, which made his approach even more effective and engaging,” she said.

Tengku Rahimah testified that Jho Low struck her as a “highly accomplished young man”.

“...his success was evident not only in his achievements, but also in the prestigious location and sophisticated aesthetics of his office in KLCC, which would impress anyone. He spoke about his background, highlighting that he had studied at Harrow and later at Wharton, the renowned business school at the University of Pennsylvania, a top Ivy League institution in the United States,” she said, reading from her prepared witness statement.

After that, Najib’s lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah had asked her if she was aware that Jho Low had dropped out from Wharton before completing his studies, to which she replied in the negative.

She said that he seemed well connected, and that she “did not have any reason to doubt him or his credibility”.

She then said that she had introduced Jho Low to her brother after the sultan had expressed a desire to enhance the income and livelihood of the people in Terengganu.

“It was around this time that we were introduced to Jho Low, who shared insights about Mubadala, a sovereign wealth fund in the UAE (United Arab Emirates), including its origins and structure. This discussion prompted us to explore the idea further and present it to Tuanku Mizan,” she said.

Previously, when testifying in his own defence in this trial, Najib had said that that the inception of 1MDB's former iteration, TIA, was the brainchild of Sultan Mizan and Jho Low, and it was brought to the Cabinet in 2008, when Najib was deputy prime minister under Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s prime ministership.

Najib is on trial for four counts of abuse of power and 21 counts of money laundering involving RM2.28 billion of 1MDB's funds.

The trial continues on Thursday before judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah.

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