{"id":75482,"date":"2020-05-21T15:44:34","date_gmt":"2020-05-21T07:44:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=75482"},"modified":"2020-05-21T15:44:35","modified_gmt":"2020-05-21T07:44:35","slug":"1mdb-trial-petrosaudi-called-a-pain-in-the-a-says-witness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=75482","title":{"rendered":"1MDB Trial: PetroSaudi called a “Pain in the A”, says witness"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

KUALA LUMPUR, May 21\u00a0(NNN-BERNAMA) —\u00a0The High Court hearing Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak\u2019s 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) case was today told that PetroSaudi International (PSI) was called a\u00a0\u2018Pain in the A\u201d(ass) or PITA by the management of the 1MDB.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was disclosed by former 1MDB chief executive officer Datuk Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi, 50, during cross-examination by Najib\u2019s counsel Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah when the lawyer asked him on \u201cPITA Project\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When asked by Muhammad Shafee on what PITA stands for, the ninth prosecution witness said it was an internal joke among the 1MDB management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shahrol Azral: \u2018P’ stands for PSI, and ‘ITA’ stands for \u2018in the A’, because the project was a \u2018Pain in the A\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Muhammad Shafee: So basically PITA was a joke that PetroSaudi was a \u2018Pain in the A?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shahrol Azral: Yes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Muhammad Shafee: That is the project\u2026the \u2018Pain in the A Project? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shahrol Azral: Yes, to repatriate the fund from PSI.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

— MORE <\/p>\n\n\n\n

COURT-NAJIB (PROJECT PITA) 2 KUALA LUMPUR<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Muhammad Shafee: Why is it a joke among the management?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shahrol Azral: It\u2019s a \u2018Pain in the A\u2019 because we needed to tread carefully due to sensitivity\u2026so we cannot proceed just on a commercial basis…the board and I felt that this fund is a sensitive issue that we have to manage carefully where Datuk Seri Najib has to be consulted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To another question, the witness said that nobody in the 1MDB board of directors (BOD) knew what is  PITA all about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is very surprising, right? The board would have to ask what PITA Project is, are we buying PITA bread,\u201d asked Muhammad Shafee to which Shahrol Azral replied: \u201cNo, it never arose.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shahrol Azral, however, agreed with the lawyer\u2019s suggestion that there was another project called \u201cMagnolia\u201d, but insisted that he did not know the meaning of \u201cMagnolia\u201d as it was given and used by Goldman Sachs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

— MORE <\/p>\n\n\n\n

COURT-NAJIB (PITA) 3  (LAST) KUALA LUMPUR<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The witness also agreed with Muhammad Shafee\u2019s suggestion that there was no paperwork or presentation made about \u201cPITA Project\u201d to the BOD.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shahrol Azral said the then 1MDB general counsel Jasmine Loo was supposed to make a representation on the project to the BOD.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere was no paperwork about PITA Project presented to the board,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Najib, 67, faces four charges of abusing his position to obtain gratification totalling RM2.3bil in 1MDB funds and 21 counts of money laundering involving the same money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The trial before Justice Collin Lawrence Sequerah continues on June 4.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

— BERNAMA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KUALA LUMPUR, May 21\u00a0(NNN-BERNAMA) —\u00a0The High Court hearing Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak\u2019s 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) case was today told that PetroSaudi International (PSI) was called a\u00a0\u2018Pain in the A\u201d(ass) or PITA by the management of the 1MDB. This was disclosed by former 1MDB chief executive officer Datuk Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi, 50, during cross-examination […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":39591,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[288,300,318],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75482"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=75482"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75482\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/39591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=75482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=75482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=75482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}