Che Lodin Wok Kamaruddin, who was the chairman from 2009 to 2016, said no one had ever told him that Low, also known as Jho Low, had such “influence” within 1MDB.

He said the company’s decisions were made by its directors after considering proposals and supporting documents from management staff and external consultants.

“No one influenced or directed me (to make decisions), or mentioned that Jho Low was Najib’s ‘proxy’,” he said.

Lodin said he first met Low during a 1MDB meeting on Sept 26, 2009, when he (Lodin) was just a member of the firm’s board of directors. He and the other directors were told that Low was representing the Saudi royal family.

He recalled that during the meeting, Low had passed his phone to then 1MDB chairman Bakke Salleh.

“Bakke went outside to take the call and when he returned, he told us that he spoke to the prime minister (Najib), who was aware of our discussion (on the US$1 billion joint venture with PetroSaudi International Ltd).

“What I understood was that the prime minister wanted us to evaluate the joint venture properly,” he said.

Bakke previously told the court that Najib told him “to firm up a decision” on the PetroSaudi International joint venture as it was a government-to-government initiative with Saudi Arabia.

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 tomorrow.