FUGITIVE financier Low Taek Jho, better known as Jho Low, was again mentioned at Najib Razak’s SRC International trial during cross-examination today, this time in connection with officers at 1Malaysia Development Bhd.

Defence counsel Harvinderjit Singh had asked former SRC International chairman Ismee Ismail whether he knew if Low was a “close associate” of 1MDB finance director Terrence Geh, who was also SRC International’s company secretary.

Ismee, who chaired the board from 2011 to 2014, said he was only now “aware” of Geh due to news reports and the trial itself.

Ismee said the same for SRC International CEO Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil’s relationship with Low, as well as former 1MDB executive director of business development Casey Tang Keng Chee.

The names cropped up when Ismee was questioned on the tens of millions in bank transfers from SRC International to Putrajaya Perdana Bhd, when Jerome Lee served as director.

Najib’s lawyers had maintained that the former prime minister was misled by bankers in charge of government-linked accounts who cooperated with individuals, such as Low, to acquire funds from SRC International, possibly with the assistance of senior officers within SRC International.

Lead defence counsel Muhammmad Shafee Abdullah had gone on record to say that Najib’s bank accounts were manipulated without his authorisation by “outsiders like Jho Low and others, and some people (at) the bank”.

Shafee had also told reporters in the trial’s early days that Najib could not possibly have known whether the money credited into his accounts came from illegal sources, and that the former finance minister “might not have had the full picture” of his bank account transactions.

Low was also mentioned today when the defence informed Ismee during cross-examintion that Nik Faisal, without the board’s knowledge, had initiated a RM140 million venture between SRC International subsidiary Gandingan Mentari and Putra Perdana Construction for a mining project in South America.

Putra Perdana Construction is a subsidiary of Putrajaya Perdana Sdn Bhd, a construction and property development company, formerly controlled by Low.

Putrajaya Perdana was reportedly sold in 2008 to UBG Bhd, a company linked to the family of Sarawak governor Abdul Taib Mahmud, who was then chief minister.

In 2010, UBG was acquired by Petrosaudi International Ltd (Seychelles) with loan assistance from 1MDB. UBG was sold to Cendana Destini Sdn Bhd in 2012.

Ismee today also said that the board was kept in the dark regarding SRC International’s second credit facility of RM2 billion, which was made out on March 28, 2012.

Najib faces seven criminal charges in relation to RM42 million credited into his personal bank accounts in 2014 and 2015. The money, prosecutors charged, originated from RM4 billion in loans from Retirement Fund Inc (KWAP) to SRC International for the purposes of investment in natural resources, among others. – June 17, 2019.