Lawyer Wan Azwan Aiman Wan Fakhruddin, representing Najib, said the board had independently deliberated a proposed joint venture between 1MDB and Aabar Investments PJS to develop the Tun Razak Exchange (TRX).

He said the directors had reviewed the proposal on several occasions in 2012 before arriving at a final decision in early 2013.

Making his closing submissions, Azwan argued that the claims by former 1MDB director Ismee Ismail and former CEO Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi that Najib had exerted pressure on them were no more than “bare assertions” and not corroborated by any substantive evidence.

“The (former) chairman (Che Lodin Wok Kamaruddin) refuted the existence of this top-down approach and insisted they had deliberated on the project.

“It is incredibly disingenuous for Ismee to keep insinuating that they were not keen on the joint venture while the contemporaneous evidence showed they deliberated the proposal on a few occasions,” he said.

Azwan also claimed the project ended up being “hijacked” by “rogue” officers in 1MDB, causing loss to the company.

He said that shortly after 1MDB received US$3 billion raised from the bonds, then CEO Hazem Abdul Rahman and then chief financial officer Azmi Tahir signed off for the money to be transferred to three fiduciary funds.

Najib is standing trial on 25 charges of abuse of power and money laundering over 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.