KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 15 (NNN-BERNAMA) —\u00a0Former CEO of 1MDB Mohd Hazem\u00a0Abd Rahman, a witness in Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak\u2019s trial, told the court today that he was shocked when the former prime minister approved the loan\u00a0of US$975 million to buy back 1MDB\u2019s shares in\u00a0Aabar Investment PJS in\u00a02014.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said as the CEO of the company, he was not informed of the additional loan taken out from Deutsche Bank AG and had learned about the matter after receiving an email from the fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho or Jho Low.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAttached with the email was the documents showing the approval given by Najib as the Minister of Finance (Incorporated).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe approval was obtained when Najib signed the documents titled \u2018Minutes by Representative of Holding Company Relating to Proceedings of Subsidiary Company Pursuant To Section 147(6) Of the Companies Act 1965 and \u2018Special Rights Redeemable Preference Shareholder\u2019s Resolution In Writing\u2019,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to the witness, 1MDB chief financial officer (CFO) Azmi Tahir\u00a0was also not aware of the loan proposal made by\u00a0Jho Low.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI received the email from Jho Low on his plan to take out additional loan totalling US$975 million from Deutsche Bank AG to settle his previous loan of US$250 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe balance will be used to settle the outstanding amount for the termination of Aabar Option. Jho Low also emailed me his plan of action titled, \u2018Final Decisions on 1MDB Energy Group IPO\u2019,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mohd Hazem, who served as 1MDB CEO and Board member from March 2013 to January 2015, said this when reading his witness statement in Najib\u2019s corruption trial involving RM2.3 billion of 1MDB funds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In previous proceedings, the court was told that the termination of Aabar Option or \u2018Option Buy Back\u2019 aims to redeem Aabar\u2019s 49 per cent stake in 1MDB\u2019s subsidiary, 1MDB Energy Sdn Bhd.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mohd Hazem said when the Aabar Option agreement between 1MDB and Aabar was inked, he had not yet made the 1MDB CEO, but he was briefed by Azmi soon after he held the position.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn order to redeem the Aabar\u2019s stake, 1MDB had to find a financial source to fund the termination of Aabar Option.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHence, on May 22, 2014, 1MDB board of directors agreed to take out a loan from Deutsche Bank AG to redeem the stake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe loan was necessary as 1MDB did not have any other financial sources, especially because at that time the 1MDB\u2019s investment fund in another company, Brazen Sky at Bridge Global Absolute Return Fund SPC still could not be redeemed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The witness said he had voiced out his concerns to Najib\u2019s principal private secretary Datuk Azlin Alias, to be conveyed to Najib on the rising amount of 1MDB debts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAzmi also told me that the loan proposal came from Jho Low, with the help of 1MDB lawyer Jasmine Loo and executive director Terence Geh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhen I learned that Jho Low was personally trying to get a loan from Deutsche Bank AG, I left it to his diplomacy expert to deal with the bank,\u201d he said, adding that the previous 1MDB\u2019s transactions were also done by Jho Low with the blessings from Najib as the chairman of the Board,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Najib, 67, is facing four charges of using his position to obtain gratification amounting to RM2.3 billion in 1MDB funds, and 21 counts of money laundering involving the same amount.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The trial before Judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah continues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
— NNN-BERNAMA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 15 (NNN-BERNAMA) —\u00a0Former CEO of 1MDB Mohd Hazem\u00a0Abd Rahman, a witness in Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak\u2019s trial, told the court today that he was shocked when the former prime minister approved the loan\u00a0of US$975 million to buy back 1MDB\u2019s shares in\u00a0Aabar Investment PJS in\u00a02014. He said as the CEO of the […]<\/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\/92319"}],"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=92319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92319\/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=92319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=92319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=92319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}