R Rajagopal, formerly from the Bukit Aman commercial crime investigation department, said he was assigned to probe 1MDB critic Khairuddin Abu Hassan’s police report in early 2015.
He said Khairuddin wanted the police to conduct an in-depth investigation into 1MDB staff and directors over certain transactions.
Among the transactions that came under police scrutiny was a sum of US$700 million that was transferred to a firm which had no business ties with 1MDB.
Previously, the court heard that 1MDB had, in 2009, entered into a joint venture with PetroSaudi International Ltd, or PSI, and that under the contract terms, it needed to fork out US$1 billion for the venture.
The US$1 billion was supposed to be deposited into the 1MDB-PSI joint venture account, but only US$300 million was moved into the account and that US$700 million was transferred to Good Star Ltd instead.
Today, Rajagopal told the court his investigations showed that former CEO Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi, former executive director Casey Tang, former chief financial officer Azmi Tahir, and former general counsel Jasmine Loo were involved in preparing the documentation and executing the US$700 million transfer.
“Investigations showed that Good Star belonged to (fugitive businessman) Jho Low (Low Taek Jho) and that it was not related to PetroSaudi,” he added.
During the investigation, Rajagopal said he recorded Tang’s statement in Bangkok nine years ago.
“Casey’s (Tang) lawyer, Selva Mookiah, asked us to go to the Malaysian embassy in Bangkok, and Selva was there (during the recording of the statement),” he said.
Rajagopal said police did not record Low’s statement over the US$700 million.
Client-solicitor privilege
Earlier today, Najib’s lawyer Shafee Abdullah informed the court that he had received a letter from 1MDB yesterday which said they did not agree to waive the client-solicitor privilege on two former 1MDB lawyers.
Deputy public prosecutor Ahmad Akram Gharib said the prosecution had been notified about the matter as well.
He added that the two former 1MDB lawyers could still be subpoenaed as defence witnesses, but would be subject to the client-solicitor privilege.
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 on March 17.