FORMER 1Malaysia Development Bhd lawyer Jasmine Loo deliberately confused the 1MDB board over a 49% equity purchase of PetroSaudi Oil Services Ltd (PSOSL) in 2012, the Kuala Lumpur High Court heard today.

She did so by purposely describing the equity purchase in an convoluted manner so as to confuse the board, testified former 1MDB CEO Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi at the trial of Najib Razak, who is charged with money laundering and abuse of power involving RM2.3 billion in 1MDB funds.

Shahrol said that Loo, now a fugitive, had worded a directors’ circular resolution in a way that made it difficult for board members to comprehend a US$2.2 billion (RM6.7 billion) investment in the PetroSaudi International subsidiary. 

When cross-examined by Najib’s lawyer, Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, Shahrol agreed with the suggestion that the circular resolution was a mechanism to “hoodwink” the board. 

Shahrol agreed with another suggestion that the investment was worthless.

To another question on whether then prime minister Najib could not possibly be in a better position than the board to know about the 1MDB deal, the 50-year-old Shahrol declined to comment, saying he did not know what Najib could have known. 

1MDB’s 2012 deal was to convert US$2.23 billion (RM6.7 billion then) in Murabaha notes via an equity purchase of a 49% stake in PSOSL. 

The deal was supposedly to help repatriate money back from previous joint venture deals with PetroSaudi International. 

In the joint venture deals, 1MDB transferred a total of US$1.83 billion to entities later revealed to be sham companies.

The amount was transferred between September 2009 and October 2011 to firms controlled either by Low Taek Jho or his associate, PSI CEO Tarek Obaid.

Shahrol also denied conspiring with Loo to defraud 1MDB. 

“She did not consult me before she prepared this,” the witness told the court today.

He further denied suggestions that he worked with Low, Tarek and PetroSaudi International director Patrick Mahony to come up with the plan to purportedly convert Murabaha notes into PSOSL equity. 

Najib is on trial on four counts of abusing his power to enrich himself with RM2.3 billion from 1MDB and 21 counts of laundering the same amount. The Pekan MP, who turns 67 next month, faces up to 20 years’ imprisonment upon conviction. 

The trial, before justice Collin Lawrence Sequerah, continues. – June 30, 2020.