Defence lawyer Wan Azwan Aiman Wan Fakhruddin said Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi had been “very eager” to get the federal government to take over the Terengganu Investment Authority (TIA) from the state government in 2008.

Shahrol, who held the post of CEO at both TIA and its successor, 1MDB, until 2013, testified as a prosecution witness in the trial.

“It was Shahrol who proposed the composition of the board of directors and placed himself in the organisation so he could be in charge of the management,” Wan Azwan told Justice Collin Lawrence Sequerah.

He said Shahrol also pushed for Najib, the then prime minister, to be named chairman of 1MDB’s board of advisers.

“The prime minister was not the one who wanted TIA to be federalised (i.e. placed under the federal government’s control). That decision was made by the Cabinet,” Wan Azwan said during submissions at the close of the prosecution’s case.

Earlier today, lead counsel Shafee Abdullah said there was nothing sinister about Najib, then also the finance minister, tabling a Cabinet paper on the proposed takeover of TIA.

“He and his relatives did not have any direct or indirect interest in TIA,” he said.

Najib is charged with 25 counts of money laundering and abuse of power over alleged 1MDB funds amounting to RM2.28 billion deposited into his AmBank accounts between February 2011 and December 2014.

The hearing continues on Sept 2.