Hazem: I’d have refused 1MDB job had i known about embezzlement

KUALA LUMPUR: Former 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) chief executive officer Mohd Hazem Abdul Rahman (pic) told the High Court he would have refused the position in the company if he had known that money was embezzled from its funds.

He maintained that he had thought the sovereign wealth fund was set up for Umno’s benefit as told to him by fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho.

Hazem said Low, better known as Jho Low, told him this during a meeting at Shangri-La Hotel in Putrajaya just before he joined 1MDB as chief operating officer in 2012.He said former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s principal private secretary, the late Datuk Azlin Alias, also joined the meeting.