Testifying in the Najib and Arul Kanda Kandasamy audit report tampering trial at the High Court today, Bakke said he and several 1MDB directors were not comfortable initially about investing in PSI.
“We even ordered the 1MDB management team, at a meeting on Sept 18, 2009, to conduct due diligence on the PSI proposal,” he said under cross-examination by Najib’s lawyer, Muhammad Shafee Abdullah.
However, Bakke found out at the next meeting, on Sept 26, 2009, that the management did not do what the directors had instructed.
“Jho Low (Low Taek Jho) passed his mobile phone to me and told me that the prime minister wanted to speak to me,” he said, referring to the fugitive financier who was present at the meeting.
“Basically his (Najib’s) words were ‘Bakke, don’t spend too much time looking at the past transactions. I want you to focus on PSI because this thing has been discussed for some time’.
“He also said he wanted to witness the signing (between 1MDB and PSI) at the end of the month with Prince Turki.”
Bakke had previously told the court that Low attended the 1MDB board meeting on Sept 26, 2009.
The contents of Low’s words and presence at the meeting were removed in the National Audit Department’s (NAD) audit report on 1MDB on the grounds that it was a “sensitive issue” and to prevent the opposition from “spinning” the facts.
The other items that were removed were two 1MDB 2014 financial statements, the issuance of Islamic medium-term notes, and the Islamic bonds’ secondary subscriber.
Najib is standing trial for alleged abuse of power as the prime minister and finance minister to obtain immunity from legal action and causing amendments to the final 1MDB audit report before it was tabled at the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) meeting.
Former 1MDB chief executive officer Arul Kanda is accused of abetting him.
Bakke also said he shared Najib’s statement on the phone with the other directors.
This prompted trial judge Zaini Mazlan to say, “Why do I feel like I am sitting in Justice Collin’s (Lawrence Sequerah) court?”
Shafee then said the phone call issue was raised by ad hoc prosecutor Gopal Sri Ram during the last proceeding and the defence was entitled to question Bakke.
High Court judge Sequerah is hearing Najib’s 1MDB trial, where he is accused of 25 counts of money laundering and abuse of power over the alleged misuse of 1MDB funds amounting to RM2.28 billion deposited into his AmBank accounts between February 2011 and December 2014.
To another question from Shafee on how he formed the impression that Low was representing Najib, Bakke said he had met the financier previously – at Najib’s defence ministry office and the deputy prime minister’s office.
“I spoke to him (Najib) that Low invited me to set up TIA (Terengganu Investment Authority) and he said ‘please help’,” he said.
Shafee then said: “You cannot take this as a licence forever for Jho Low to direct.”
Bakke replied: “This is not an assumption of Jho Low. Let me clarify … the phone call with the prime minister on the other line reinforced (the opinion) that the PSI proposal must be looked at urgently.”
The hearing continues on April 12.