KUALA LUMPUR – Rogue financier Low Taek Jho has a habit of dropping VIP names, such as that of former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, to boost his personal credibility and standing, the high court here heard today.
During cross-examination by Najib’s counsel Tania Scivetti, the prosecution’s 50th witness Jasmine Loo, who was also 1Malaysia Development Bhd’s (1MDB) general counsel, testified that the fugitive businessman, better known as Jho Low, was fond of name-dropping.
Scivetti: Are you aware of Jho Low’s tendency to make up stories and drop names?
Loo: I don’t know (much) about this tendency of making up stories and name-dropping but yes, (I am aware).
Scivetti: You agree that name-dropping doesn’t bear any truth?
Loo: He is fond of name-dropping but I don’t know the strength of it.
Previously, other prosecution witnesses, including former banker Joanna Yu, testified Jho Low had a habit of dropping the names of “powerful individuals” from around the world.
Former BSI Bank wealth management services head Kevin Michael Swampillai told the court nobody from the bank had done a check on Jho Low’s characteristics.
Meanwhile, Loo reiterated to the court that she was not testifying against Najib in exchange for a deal with the prosecution to drop criminal charges against her.
On March 15, she denied insinuations made by Najib’s lawyers that she struck a deal with the prosecution or the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission to drop her money-laundering charges.
She has been accused of laundering US$6 million (RM28.4 million) of 1MDB funds through her Swiss bank accounts.
In 2018, she was charged in absentia.
She also testified in court, last month, that she had no details in regard to her criminal charges as she left it to her lawyers to “deal with it”.
She also did not deny Scivetti’s suggestion that she was one of Jho Low’s close associates, as reported in the media when the 1MDB scandal broke.
Meanwhile, Loo affirmed that Najib was aware of the content of every document that he signed, seeing she had prepared the said documents for the latter to sign as the company’s board of directors’ advisory chairman.
“At 1MDB, I believe there was a different approach of handling documents compared to the standard practice, where documents were supposed to be signed by the board of directors first and then by Najib. But at 1MDB it was the other way around.”
Najib, 70, is facing four charges of using his position to obtain an alleged RM2.3-billion bribe from 1MDB funds, as well as 21 charges of money laundering involving the same amount.
The trial before judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah continues tomorrow. – April 4, 2024