Ismee Ismail, who served as director from 2009 to 2016, said he first met the financier, also known as Jho Low, when Terengganu wanted to set up the Terengganu Investment Authority (TIA), the precursor to 1MDB.
He said he was handpicked by Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin to be one of TIA’s steering committee members. The other members were Low, Mohd Bakke Salleh, Azlan Mohd Zainol and Abdul Aziz Mohd Akhir.
“TIA was meant to be Terengganu’s sovereign wealth fund.
“The steering committee met several times to discuss the setting up of the company and fundraising matters. I was told that TIA would get a government guarantee to finance its operations later,” he said.
Ismee said Low introduced himself at one of the steering committee meetings.
“I don’t know why he was there, and I assumed he was Tuanku’s adviser.
“However, during our meetings, I came to realise that Jho Low was Datuk Seri’s (Najib’s) adviser as he always addressed the prime minister as ‘boss’,” he said.
He said Low was only named as TIA adviser but his appointment was not documented after TIA changed its name to 1MDB.
Ismee said that despite Low having no official role in 1MDB, the businessman originally from Penang “still played a role behind the scenes”.
“We (1MDB directors) always received Jho Low’s emails. These emails detailed various suggestions for us to execute.
“I don’t know what Jho Low’s capacity was in sending these emails. All we knew was that he was close to the prime minister and we tended not to ignore his emails,” he said.
Ismee said Low joined Najib, government officials and 1MDB members on an official trip to Abu Dhabi.
“The purpose of this trip was for us in 1MDB to see a mosque that would be built in Malaysia through a joint venture with Aabar.
“Jho Low also assisted the government to obtain an additional 10,000 haj quota for those who wanted to go for pilgrimage,” he said.
The prosecution, in its opening statement in the trial, had said Low was Najib’s “mirror image”. It said the former prime minister’s “words and conduct made it clear to 1MDB’s officers, board members and others that Jho Low was his alter ego”.
‘Najib signed undated shareholder’s resolution before directors’
Ismee also told the court he usually asked questions before signing directors’ resolutions, as they represented important decisions in investment, appointment of employees and national security matters.
“I always asked (former CEO) Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi or (former chief financial officer) Azmi Tahir on whether due diligence had been carried out before we executed any decision. Sometimes, I asked my fellow directors the same thing.
“Our resolutions would be taken to Datuk Seri (Najib) for his final approval because he was the shareholder,” he said.
Ismee said that on a few occasions, however, Najib had given his approval before the directors signed the circular resolutions.
“This was somehow against the norm, but since Datuk Seri had agreed and signed the special rights redeemable preference shareholder resolution without putting the date, we (directors) just put down our signatures without further questions,” he said.
Najib is standing trial for 25 counts of money laundering and abuse of power charges over alleged 1MDB funds amounting to RM2.28 billion deposited into his AmBank accounts between February 2011 and December 2014.
The hearing before High Court judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah continues.