Loo denies making deal

1MDB witness says no trade was made in exchange for testimony

KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court heard that the testimony of a key witness in the 1MDB trial involving Datuk Seri Najib Razak was not in exchange for having criminal charges against her dropped.

Former 1MDB general counsel Jasmine Loo, 50, denied having made deals with the authorities to have her case withdrawn.

The 50th prosecution witness was charged in absentia in December 2018 while she was still on the run, before returning to Malaysia last July.

Loo, who was being cross-examined by Najib’s lead counsel Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah yesterday, said she left her legal matters to her lawyers to handle.

Muhammad Shafee: You’ve been here for several months. You would know what you were charged with.

Loo: Yes, I think some money laundering charges. There were three or four charges.

Muhammad Shafee: You have never spoken to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, the Attorney General’s Chambers or other authorities about your pending case in absentia?

Loo: No, I left it to my lawyers. I just asked them to deal with this as I was to attend to the investigation.

Asked if she knew the status of her case in absentia, Loo said she “was not aware”.

Muhammad Shafee further probed the witness if she had knowledge of the charges against her or even if she had the charge sheets, to which Loo repeatedly maintained that she did not.

Muhammad Shafee: You made a deal for the charges to be dropped when you agreed to give testimony.

Loo: I don’t agree.

In December 2018, Loo was charged in court for allegedly laundering a total of US$5.99mil being proceeds of unlawful activity received into the account of River Dee International SA (BVI) in Falcon Private Bank AG in Zurich.

The offence under Section 4(1)(a) of the Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorism Financing Act 2001 [Act 613], punishable under Section 4(1) of the same Act, carries a fine not exceeding RM5mil or imprisonment not exceeding five years; or both.

Loo, who turned fugitive for five years, previously testified that she feared for her life and stayed put in Bangkok on the instructions of fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho, better known as Jho Low.

The court also heard from Loo that it never occurred to her that Low was a conman who siphoned money out of 1MDB, due to him making big bucks.

According to Loo, Low was already a millionaire prior to his involvement in 1MDB, with his several businesses and dealings with companies owned by Arabs.

The witness said this when asked the reason she did not question the US$9mil that was transferred into her two Swiss bank accounts between 2012 and 2013.

“I didn’t think he was doing this (siphoning 1MDB’s funds) as he was already making millions. I believe what I believe,” she said.

Muhammad Shafee then suggested that Low was “a conman and crook of the highest order” whom Loo had no issues taking instructions from.

“In hindsight, perhaps, but I don’t know whether some of the things he (Low) said were true,” Loo responded.

Muhammad Shafee: Is there any character of Jho Low in the context of this trial that has redemptive value?

Loo: Perhaps not. But we cannot generalise his character that way.

Muhammad Shafee: Why not? My client’s (Najib) character was generalised and his liberty is at stake. Jho Low’s liberty is not. He could be on a beach somewhere.

Najib, 70, is on trial for 25 charges in total – four for abuse of power that allegedly brought him financial benefit to the tune of RM2.28bil; and 21 for money laundering involving the same amount of money.

The trial before Justice Collin Lawrence Sequerah continues on April 1.