Information suppressed during 2015 audit of 1MDB, Arul Kanda tells court

KUALA LUMPUR: Certain quarters in 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) suppressed company's documents from the National Audit Department (NAD) during an audit in 2015, Arul Kanda Kandasamy told the High Court here.

The former 1MDB chief executive officer said this during cross-examination by defence lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah in the 1MDB audit tampering trial where Arul is the co-accused, along with former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

Muhammad Shafee, who represents Najib, was questioning Arul about former auditor-general Tan Sri Ambrin Buang's frustration with the lack of cooperation by 1MDB throughout the audit process.

The accused-turned-prosecution witness said there were requests from the NAD for documents and information for the audit but because 1MDB had been raided by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), some of the documents had been taken away.

"Unfortunately, not all documents were available. Partly because 1MDB was raided in July 2015 by a task force comprising the MACC, police, so they had taken a lot of those files, documents, hard drives and computer servers," Arul said on Friday (Aug 26).

Arul said this was the reason 1MDB did not have ready access to the requested information.

"Subsequently, I now know some people in 1MDB were actively suppressing information or sharing of information as what has come out now," he added.

Muhammad Shafee then asked who was responsible for the suppression of information from auditors, to which Arul said the former 1MDB chief financial officer (CFO) Azmi Tahir was the person in charge with dealing with the NAD.

Najib, 69, is accused of abusing his position to order amendments to the 1MDB final audit report to avoid any action being taken against him while Arul Kanda is accused of abetting Najib in making the amendments.

The hearing continues before Justice Mohamed Zaini Mazlan on Sept 2.