He said he filed a discovery application in 2021 at the US district court for the southern district of New York to obtain documents used in the 1MDB trial of former Goldman Sachs banker Roger Ng.
Ng was sentenced to 10 years for corruption last year.
Najib sought the trial documents to “uncover information about the roles of 1MDB officials, the flow of funds, and the identities of co-conspirators and shell companies” involved in 1MDB.
He said Ng’s former colleague, Tim Leissner, had admitted to paying bribes for 1MDB transactions. Leissner, who pleaded guilty to conspiring to launder money and corruption, is awaiting sentencing.
Najib told the High Court here that a subpoena was served on Leissner for the German national to provide 1MDB-related documents.
“However, his lawyers sought an extension to respond, and the DoJ (US department of justice) also filed a motion to intervene and stay the proceedings (which was granted).
“The (US) government argued that it had a substantial interest in protecting the integrity of ongoing criminal cases against Goldman Sachs, Jho Low (Low Taek Jho), Ng, and Leissner,” Najib said, claiming that the DoJ’s actions had “delayed” justice for him.
Without these crucial documents, he said, he was left to face the prosecution with his hands tied.
Najib also claimed that the DoJ’s 2016 civil forfeiture complaints to recover more than US$1 billion in assets linked to 1MDB were politically motivated.
The DoJ said more than US$3.5 billion belonging to 1MDB was “allegedly misappropriated by high-level officials of 1MDB and their associates”.
‘Treasury official failed to carry out duty’
Najib also said that a former senior Treasury official had failed to fulfil her duty to conduct checks of 1MDB’s approval to seek a further loan of RM6.17 billion to purchase shares in an independent power producer firm.
He said he never gave such approval to 1MDB in 2012, adding that former Treasury deputy secretary-general Siti Zauyah Desa had also testified to having no knowledge of it.
“The usual procedure for such loan approvals required the letters to be drafted by the Treasury’s relevant unit, in this case the Minister of Finance Incorporated, or MoF Inc, under Siti Zauyah.
“It is clear that neither she nor the officers took any steps to inquire with 1MDB’s management about the (approval) letter.
“It is rather disconcerting for her to insinuate that the lack of knowledge by her and her department implies something sinister on my part,” Najib said.
He added that Siti Zauyah’s unit could have prevented the approval if they had done their job properly.
In 2022, Siti Zauyah testified that 1MDB officials reported their operations directly to Najib, not to her unit that oversaw government-owned companies.
Najib is standing trial on 25 charges of money laundering and abuse of power over 1MDB funds amounting to RM2.28 billion allegedly deposited in his AmBank accounts between February 2011 and December 2014.
The hearing continues before Justice Collin Lawrence Sequerah on Dec 9.