Jho Low opened company account three months before receiving US$700mil of 1MDB funds, court told

KUALA LUMPUR: An analyst from Bank Negara has told the High Court here that fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho or Jho Low (pic) opened a Swiss bank account for his company Good Star Ltd, three months before the entity received US$700mill of 1Malaysia Development Berhad's (1MDB) funds in 2009.

Adam Ariff Mohd Roslan, 34, said Jho Low opened Good Star's bank account on June 11, 2009, and the company received US$700mil on Sept 30, 2009.

The 47th prosecution witness said according to banking records, 1MDB instructed Deutsche Malaysia to make the US$700mil transfer.

He said this when questioned by Deputy Public Prosecutor Kamal Baharin Omar on Wednesday (Aug 30) at Datuk Seri Najib Razak's trial involving alleged misappropriation of RM2.3bil of 1MDB funds.

However, Najib's counsel Muhammad Farhan Muhammad Shafee said that the defence team maintained its objection over the admissibility of the document that the prosecution was relying on to prove Good Star's account opening.

Earlier, Adam Ariff testified that the RM2.28bil that entered Najib's private bank accounts in 19 transactions from 2011 to 2014 could be traced back to funds raised and belonging to 1MDB and this was his findings after analysing 343 banking documents and records.

Reading out his July 2023 money trail report which gave a detailed analysis of the money that entered Najib's personal bank accounts, Adam Ariff said he had made the statements and analysis in the report in good faith and said these were based on information up to the date of the report that is believed to be reliable and accurate.

In his report, Adam Ariff also said he had no reason to believe that there are any material facts that were misleading or had been withheld from him.

Najib, 70, faces four charges of using his position to obtain bribes amounting to RM2.3bil belonging to 1MDB and 21 charges of money laundering involving the same amount.

The trial before Judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah continues on Sept 18. – Bernama