FUGITIVE financier Low Taek Jho kept a low profile on his involvement in 1Malaysia Development Bhd to protect former prime minister Najib Razak, the high court heard last week.

During his time as 1MDB chief from 2009 to 2013, Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi observed that Low maintained a low profile because Umno politicians were “envious” of his close relationship with Najib.

“There was this ‘perasaan dengki’ (envy) that people in Umno had of Jho Low’s influence and access to Najib,” Shahrol testified.

“It made sense to me when Jho (Low) informed me that his involvement (in 1MDB) needed to be kept low key as to not weaken Najib’s position.”

When prompted on a specific reason Low wanted to keep a low profile, Shahrol replied during cross-examination that the businessman’s Chinese ethnicity was considered a political liability.

“I asked him early on and his answer was that the optics, politically, would be bad for Najib,” Shahrol said.

Najib, 66, faces four charges of using his position to obtain bribes totalling RM2.3 billion from 1MDB and 21 charges of laundering the same amount.

Prosecutors have accused him of conspiring with Low to defraud the sovereign wealth fund.

The witness said he did not suspect Low’s alleged criminal activities until 2015, when enforcement authorities began investigating the state-backed investment fund.

This was despite the fact that the former chief executive had never seen Low’s signature on any 1MDB-related document.

Shahrol, however, conceded that he may have been hired as CEO due to his inexperience in financial matters.

Low, a former client of Shahrol’s during his stint as managing director in consulting firm Accenture, recommended the latter to the post.

On the Penang-born Low’s role in 1MDB, Shahrol testified that the then 28-year-old businessman served as “consigliere” to Najib on matters related to 1MDB.

“Consigliere” – popularised by the film The Godfather – is Sicilian for adviser or counsellor to a Mafia boss.

Shahrol said it was on Low’s recommendation that Najib approved the appointment of French business tycoon Bernard Arnault as a member of 1MDB’s precursor Terengganu Investment Authority’s international board of advisers.

Arnault is CEO of luxury goods firm LVMH Moet Hennessy. Low also recommended the appointment to the board Mubadala Development Company CEO Khaldoon Khalifa Al-Mubarak, former ExxonMobil CEO Lee Raymond, former General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt and former Walt Disney CEO Michael Eisner.

Appointed to the board later were Khaldoon, Arnault, CITIC Group chairman Chang Zhenming and former Qatari prime minister Hamad Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani.

Shahrol also testified that AmBank in 2009 never told the Terengganu Investment Authority board or Najib that it was involved in bond flipping that allegedly made companies linked to Low millions of ringgit.

This was in relation to a bond sale by TIA in May 2009 which sought to raise RM5 billion to develop Pulau Bidong in Terengganu.

The issuance was for 30-year Islamic federal guaranteed bonds paying a coupon rate of 5.75%.

Neither TIA’s board nor Najib were ever informed by the bank that two foreign companies linked to Low bought bonds at a steeply discounted rate and sold them at the open market at face value, Shahrol said.

Buyers included Employees Provident Fund, Social Security Organisation and insurance companies.

The companies – Aktis Capital Singapore Pte Ltd and Country Group Securities, based in Thailand – were secondary subscribers in the bond sale.

Low’s father, Larry, was linked to Country Group, according to documents tendered to court.

Najib is represented by a dozen lawyers, led by Muhammad Shafee Abdullah.  

Former Federal Court judge Gopal Sri Ram leads the prosecution before Kuala Lumpur High Court judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah.

The trial resumes tomorrow. – October 13, 2019.