KUALA LUMPUR – The high court was told today that fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho, or Jho Low, had directed the late Kee Kok Thiam to draft a letter of confirmation from Prince Saud Abdul Aziz Al-Saud to declare that the funds deposited into Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s accounts were donations from Saudi Arabia.
Former 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) lawyer Jasmine Loo Ai Swan, 50, said it occurred in the business centre of the Mayfair Hotel in London when Jho Low asked her to meet him in early 2015.
“When I arrived at the room (business centre), I saw Kee as well as Ihsan Perdana Sdn Bhd managing director Datuk Dr Shamsul Anwar Sulaiman and 1MDB corporate social responsibility project director Dennis See Thuan Buan there.
“Shamsul was asking Jho Low for a solution regarding the issue of funds received in Najib’s accounts, which were said to be from Putrajaya Perdana and SRC. Shamsul also mentioned that various parties had started questioning Najib’s accounts, especially the inflow of money, purportedly from 1MDB,” she said.
Loo said Jho Low then told Kee to prepare a letter of confirmation from Prince Saud stating that the funds deposited into Najib’s accounts were donations from Saudi Arabia.
“Then, I left with Jho Low for a while to discuss other matters, but when I returned to the business centre, I saw Kee drafting the Arab donation letter,” Loo said, adding that she was not sure of the amount of the “donations”.
The 50th prosecution witness said this when reading her 63-page witness statement at Najib’s corruption and money-laundering trial involving RM2.3 billion of 1MDB funds.
Loo said the draft of the letter did not have any signatures then and she was unsure when the letter was sent to Najib.
Kee, who was investigated by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission for allegedly receiving money from 1MDB and SRC International funds, had “disappeared” since 2018 before he was deported back to Malaysia on May 3, 2023, but died following a massive stroke on May 29 the same year.
Najib, 70, faces four charges of using his position as prime minister to obtain bribes totalling RM2.3 billion from 1MDB funds and 21 charges of money laundering involving the same amount.
The trial before judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah continues on Friday. – February 14, 2024