FORMER Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz today told the High Court that fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho or Jho Low never visited her and cooked pasta for her family at her residence in Bukit Tunku. 

The 76-year-old witness said this when questioned by Najib Tun Razak’s lead counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah at the former prime minister’s trial involving the misappropriation of RM2.3 billion of 1MDB funds. 

Muhammad Shafee: When you were the BNM Governor, where was your residence?   

Zeti: At Bukit Tunku, Jalan Tunku Puteri. 

Muhammad Shafee: That was not very far from Najib’s house.   

Zeti: Yes. 

To Muhammad Shafee’s suggestion that Jho Low was in the habit of coming to her house on weekends to cook pasta for her family, Zeti disagreed, saying that it was “ridiculous and preposterous, it never happened”.  

The 46th prosecution witness also denied that Jho Low was close to her family through her husband Tawfiq Ayman even though they were business partners. 

She added that she had never received any expensive gift from Jho Low in her entire life. 

Muhammad Shafee: There was an occasion when you met the PM (Najib) and you said Jho Low was very fond of giving you expensive presents and you said, “I accepted them, but I returned them since”. 

Zeti: I never received any gift from anybody, including Jho Low. 

Muhammad Shafee: Did you say this to the PM (Najib)?   

Zeti: I don’t recall any discussion relating to gifts. 

Muhammad Shafee: Did you recall the discussion about Jho Low with Najib? 

Zeti: I don’t recall.  

Zeti had also denied an allegation made by former Goldman Sachs banker Tim Leissner during Roger Ng’s 1MDB trial that Zeti’s husband Tawfiq had received bribes so that the US$1 billion (RM4.58 billion) meant for the 1MDB-Petrosaudi joint venture was able to leave the country without BNM’s approval. 

Muhammad Shafee, when reading the New York court’s transcript of Ng’s trial, said Leissner testified that BNM had to approve US$1 billion leaving Malaysia because in 2009, Malaysia still had capital controls in place. 

“The US$1 billion was wired overnight out of Malaysia (to the JV company account overseas) and it had been done because the husband of the then governor Zeti at BNM had received a bribe to make that happen. 

“In overnight, that money was transferred, which was unprecedented at that time. No approval was obtained that quickly with BNM,” said Leissner. 

Muhammad Shafee: Tan Sri, you must have heard about this.  

Zeti: He (Tawfiq) said he never received any bribe in his whole life. He made reference that he never met these two persons (Ng and Leissner).   

Muhammad Shafee: Did BNM or you make any statement to refute this? 

Zeti: We did not because we were told it would affect the case (Ng’s trial). 

Zeti, however, said her husband made a statement regarding the allegation because it was personal to him. 

Najib, 70, faces four charges of using his position to obtain bribes amounting to RM2.3 billion belonging to 1MDB and 21 charges of money laundering involving the same amount. 

The trial before Judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah continues. – Bernama, August 15, 2023.