He said responsibility for the loss should fall on former CEO Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi and the company’s management team, as they were ready to seal the joint venture in September 2009.
“Bakke (Salleh) and Shahrol were (even) appointed to be 1MDB’s representatives in the joint venture company and they also agreed to open a joint bank account.
“The prosecution’s contention that it was my direction that forced them to enter this joint venture is disingenuous,” Najib said, referring to the testimony of Bakke, the company’s former chairman.
The court previously heard that 1MDB was required to invest US$1 billion in the joint venture, and that the funds were supposed to be deposited in a joint account with PSI.
However, only US$300 million was moved into the account. The balance was diverted to an account owned by Good Star Limited, a company controlled by fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho.
Bakke also testified that Najib had told him during a telephone conversation prior to a board meeting on Sept 18, 2009 that he would like 1MDB’s board to “firm up” a decision on the proposed PSI joint venture.
He said Najib had during that conversation shown a “strong interest” in pushing through with the joint venture.
In his testimony today, Najib said the prosecution was reading too much into his telephone conversation with Bakke.
He denied taking a personal interest in the joint venture or directing Bakke to seal the deal with PSI.
“The only interest I had was national interest,” said Najib.
He also said his intention was simply to have the board define and delineate the joint venture’s terms.
“If such a directive had been given, Bakke who prides himself on good corporate governance would have ordered it to be recorded (in the meeting minutes). This so-called phone conversation and directive were curiously absent,” he said.
Najib is standing trial on 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 before Justice Collin Lawrence Sequerah continues.