Former 1MDB general counsel Jasmine Loo said this when cross-examined by Najib’s lawyer Tania Scivetti.
The lawyer had asked Loo, the prosecution’s 50th witness, whether she agreed to testify in favour of the prosecution in return for having the charges brought against her under the Capital Markets and Services Act 2007 dropped.
Loo was charged in absentia with abetting in the misappropriation of US$2.7 billion from three 1MDB bonds underwritten by Goldman Sachs.
Scivetti: The charges against you have not been pursued because you have agreed to give evidence against Najib.
Loo: I disagree.
Loo also said she was prepared to defend the charges.
“Since my return to Malaysia, I have responded to the various authorities, including the Securities Commission, regarding the charges,” she said.
Najib’s lead counsel Shafee Abdullah previously posed a similar question about two money laundering charges brought against Loo over US$6 million deposited into a Swiss account she controlled between Dec 6, 2012 and July 1, 2014.
The funds are believed to be part of money diverted from the first two 1MDB bond offerings underwritten by Goldman Sachs.
Loo, who left the country in 2018, returned to Malaysia last July when she was arrested by the police and handed over to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission.
She is now a protected witness.
On a separate matter, Loo said she was unable to confirm the veracity of statements made by Low Taek Jho, better known as Jho Low, as the fugitive financier had a habit of name-dropping.
Scivetti: Are you aware of Jho Low’s tendency to make up stories and name-drop?
Loo: I don’t know about his tendencies to make up stories, but name-dropping, yes.
Scivetti: You agree that the name-dropping does not bear any truth?
Loo: He is fond of name-dropping but I don’t know the strength of it.
Scivetti: In fact, you wouldn’t know if he was telling the truth.
Loo: Unless I was there to verify.
Previous witnesses like former central bank governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz and former AmBank relationship manager Joanna Yu had also testified of Jho Low’s tendency to “name-drop”, alluding to his close interpersonal relationship with powerful individuals around the globe.
Najib is facing 25 charges for abuse of power and money laundering over alleged 1MDB funds amounting to RM2.28 billion deposited into his AmBank accounts between February 2011 and December 2014.
The trial before Justice Collin Lawrence Sequerah continues tomorrow.