He said former 1MDB chairman Bakke Salleh had told the directors he had spoken to Najib on the phone before a board meeting on Sept 26, 2009.

“What I can recall was Bakke telling us that ‘PM wants us to do this thing (the PSI joint venture)’,” he said.

Najib’s lawyer, Shafee Abdullah, then questioned Ismee on whether Bakke had mentioned words such as “Don’t spend too much time looking at the past transactions”.

In response, Ismee said Bakke did not go into details of his phone call with Najib.

“Basically, Bakke said the board had to firm up a decision (on PSI),” he said.

Last week, at Najib’s 1MDB audit report tampering trial, Bakke testified that despite his doubts, Najib had told him to proceed with the joint venture.

According to Bakke, Najib had said: “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.”

Today, Shafee suggested that what Bakke told Ismee and others in the meeting room was “not exactly what the prime minister had told him (Bakke)”.

“He (Bakke) might have wanted to impress the board of directors,” the defence counsel said.

Deputy public prosecutor Ahmad Akram Gharib objected to the line of questioning, adding that the defence was “asking for Ismee’s opinion”.

Trial judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah then asked the defence to rephrase the question.

Ismee then told the court that only Bakke could testify on the contents of his phone call with Najib.

Najib 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.

The hearing continues.