‘Aide to Jho Low wrote Saudi donation letter for Najib’

KUALA LUMPUR: Fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho, known as Jho Low, ordered an aide to prepare a “donation letter” from an Arab royalty to justify money that was funnelled into Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s bank account, the High Court here was told.

Former 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) general counsel Jasmine Loo said she had seen a draft of the letter on the screen of a computer at London’s Mayfair Hotel business centre room in early 2015.

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Loo said she had gone to London to meet Low at the hotel.

“As I reached the room, I saw Kee Kok Thiam, Ihsan Perdana Sdn Bhd (IPSB) managing director Datuk Shamsul Anwar Sulaiman, and Yayasan Rakyat 1Malaysia (YR1M) project director Dennis See.

“At that time, Shamsul was asking Low about the money in Najib’s account that was said to come from 1MDB.

“Jho Low then ordered Kee to prepare a ‘confirmation letter’ from ‘Prince Saud’ to state that the money in Najib’s account was a donation from Saudi Arabia,” she told former prime minister Najib’s RM2.28bil 1MDB corruption trial here yesterday.

Loo said she stepped out of the room with Low to have a discussion on another matter.

When she returned to the room, she saw Kee preparing a draft of the “donation letter” from Prince Saud.

The letter was dated June 1, 2014, but the witness said she believed it was backdated.

“I am not sure about the donation amount. At that time, the draft did not carry a signature and I am not sure when the letter was sent to Najib,” she added.

The 50th prosecution witness also said she had no knowledge of other Arab donation letters except for the one she had seen. Najib’s defence team had previously produced four letters in the 1MDB trial, claiming that the funds that entered Najib’s accounts were Saudi donations.

Kee, said to be a close associate of Low, was repatriated to Malaysia in May last year but died due to a sudden stroke on May 29, 2023.