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KUALA LUMPUR (March 24): Former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak (pictured) is seeking a court order to obtain bank statements and other related documents of companies believed to be related to Low Taek Jho — also known as Jho Low — who is the purported mastermind of the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) financial scandal.
According to the notice of motion filed this morning by Najib’s lawyers, some of the companies listed are also believed to be related to the husband of former Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) governor Tan Sri Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz, Datuk Dr Tawfiq Ayman.
The companies related to Jho Low that are listed are Aktis Capital Singapore Pte Ltd, Country Group Securities Pte Ltd, ACME Time Ltd (BVI), Butamba Investment Ltd, Central Holding Ltd. The companies related to Tawfiq are Iron Rhapsody Ltd and Cutting Edge Industries Ltd, which are based in Singapore. Another company that is also listed in the notice of motion is law firm Sherman and Sterling LLC.
Besides bank statements, Najib’s lawyers are also seeking declarations of the identities of the companies’ beneficial owners, registers of members of the companies, registers of directors of the companies, as well as correspondence between the banks and the companies in respect of their transactions, including emails, telegraphic transfers, remittance form, payment advice, transaction report, payment order, credit advice and bank memos.
During case management of the 1MDB-Tanore trial before High Court judge Justice Collin Lawrence Sequerah this morning, defence lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah informed the court that he has filed the discovery application against the prosecution.
Shafee has also filed an affidavit by Najib to support the application.
The application compels the revelation of the aforementioned documents from the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and BNM, or any other entities having custody of the documents.
The judge has set this Friday (March 26) for a case mention of the application.
Malaysia Today portal, run by blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin, claimed in a post on Dec 28 that some of Zeti’s family members had received over RM100 million from Jho Low.
Following the allegation, news portal Free Malaysia Today (FMT) then reported that Zeti’s husband and two sons admitted to knowing about the money in statutory declarations (SDs) signed in March last year. The money was in the accounts of Cutting Edge Industries in Singapore, and the three admitted to being the beneficial owners of the accounts. FMT also said the SDs, which it sighted, had been certified to be authentic by the attesting lawyers.
The SDs, FMT wrote, also state that Zeti’s husband and sons had agreed to a settlement with the Singapore government to return the money in their accounts to 1MDB, in return for Singapore dropping investigations.
However, Zeti has issued a statement denying allegations that she and her family had received funds from 1MDB, contending that they are completely false and malicious.
Apart from denying the allegations, she said she was unable to make any further statements about the allegation as she is a potential witness in the ongoing trial and therefore could potentially be sub judice for her to do so.
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