Former 1MDB CEO Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi said the board of directors was only told about due diligence during a special meeting on Sept 18, 2009.

“During that time, we decided that we needed to execute a government-to-government deal. At that time, I believed that PSI was a trustworthy partner,” he said to questions from Najib’s lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah.

He said a paper on due diligence was never brought to the directors’ attention.

Minutes of the board meeting tendered in court showed former 1MDB director Azlan Mohd Zainol and former chairman Che Lodin Wok Kamaruddin had raised questions on the identity of PSI.

Shafee then asked why there was no need for a due diligence report as Shahrol had said that the 1MDB-PSI deal was signed by the Saudi Arabian and Malaysian governments.

When asked if the absence of due diligence would look bad on him, Shahrol agreed.

Shahrol denied that he put pressure on 1MDB to sign a “billion dollar deal” with PSI, adding that he was only executing Najib’s mandate to get the deal done by Sept 28, 2009.

He said businessman Low Taek Jho had told him that the Saudi crown prince was supposed to visit Malaysia and that they wanted the prince to witness the signing.

“And of course what I had in mind was that this was a decision done by the prime minister as the special shareholder and involved national policy and investments,” he said.

Shafee then referred Shahrol to a letter from PSI CEO Tarek Obaid to Najib, in which Tarek said that the deal allowed 1MDB to “capture a prized asset” from the Saudi government-backed company.

Shahrol replied he would not speculate on the contents of Tarek’s letter to Najib.

Najib is standing trial for 25 charges of money laundering and abuse of power over alleged 1MDB funds amounting to RM2.28 billion deposited in his AmBank accounts between February 2011 and December 2014.

Hearing continues before High Court judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah.