Testifying in the former prime minister’s 1MDB trial, Che Lodin Wok Kamaruddin said he attended a meeting at Najib’s Langgak Duta house on Dec 15, 2013, together with the company’s former CEO Hazem Abdul Rahman, and its ex-CFO Azmi Tahir.

Also present were Johan Idris, KPMG’s then managing partner, and two other partners from the audit firm, Raslan Rahman and Foong Mun Kong.

The court had previously heard that KPMG had refused to sign 1MDB’s 2013 financial statements after failing to get proper answers to questions about the authenticity of 1MDB’s US$2.3 billion investment in Brazen Sky Ltd.

KPMG was subsequently replaced by Deloitte.

Today, Lodin said that at the meeting, Najib instructed 1MDB’s management to cooperate with KPMG on its inquiry.

“He also requested that KPMG go to Hong Kong to get the documents.

“I commented that KPMG needs to be fair to us and not request something that we cannot provide,” Lodin said.

Lodin told the court that, contrary to his testimony, Johan’s notes on the meeting did not suggest that he had been “intimidated” by Najib into signing off on the financials.

Najib himself denied ordering KPMG to sign off on the 2013 financial statements and acknowledged that the auditors were unhappy with 1MDB for failing to provide sufficient documents.

Najib is on trial for 25 charges of abuse of power and money laundering over funds amounting to RM2.28 billion that were deposited into his AmBank accounts between February 2011 and December 2014.

The hearing before Justice Collin Lawrence Sequerah continues tomorrow.