1MALAYSIA Development Bhd did not inform the Finance Ministry, its ultimate full owner, Mohd Bakke Salleh’s resignation as the chairman of the government development company, a prosecution witness told the high court today.

Former finance ministry deputy secretary Siti Zauyah Mohd Desa, the prosecution’s 26th witness,  said former 1MDB CEO Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi should have informed the ministry over the matter.

She said this when asked by Najib Razak’s lawyer Wan Aizuddin Wan Mohammed.

Wan Aizuddin: Bakke’s resignation was not in the record. That means no one from 1MDB informed MOF of his resignation?

Siti Zauyah: Yes,correct.

Wan Aizuddin: Shahrol [Azral Ibrahim Halmi] should have informed the ministry?

Siti Zauyah: Yes, but they never reported anything to MoF.

In May, Bakke told the High Court that he wanted to resign following 1MDB management’s remittance of US$700 million to Good Star Ltd despite reservations by the board.

He also decided to only send a text message to Najib to inform him of his resignation from the board as he suspected the latter had a personal interest in the 1MDB joint venture (JV) agreement with PetroSaudi Ltd.

Good Star, it was later revealed, is a company belonging to fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho, better known as Jho Low, deemed the mastermind of the 1MDB scandal.

Bakke, along with board member Azlan Mohd Zainol, resigned in protest of the remittance of the funds in 2009.

Najib is facing four charges of using his position as then prime minister to obtain bribes totalling RM2.3 billion from 1MDB funds, and 21 charges of money laundering involving the same amount.

He is already serving a 12-year jail term after failing in his final appeal at the Federal Court in the SRC International case. 

Clad in a dark suit, Najib was flanked by prison guards as he was brought to the Kuala Lumpur High Court this morning. – September 5, 2022.