KUALA LUMPUR: Najib Razak told the High Court in his SRC International trial that he started to have doubts about fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho’s credibility when he was called to assist investigations into the government-owned company five years ago.
Najib said Low, better known as Jho Low, “did a lot of things” that he was not aware of prior to the SRC probe and subsequent media reports.
“Jho Low made a lot of money and I am not surprised he was involved in other scams as well, which I don’t want to mention here,” he said, when questioned by his lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah.
Najib was asked to clarify about his suspicion on Low, as the former prime minister had said that Low was the person who facilitated the “Saudi donation” into his bank accounts between 2011 and 2014.
Najib previously said that he knew that Low had a successful working relationship with the Arabs and Khazanah on the development of Iskandar Malaysia in Johor and that Low also had good connections with the Arab royal family.
He added that he knew Low graduated from Wharton Business School and his stepson, Riza Aziz, had introduced Low to him.
Najib also told the court that he “could not have been so stupid or a moron” to have received RM42 million from SRC International as a bribe and depositing the money into his bank accounts.
“If people asked for bribes they won’t want to wait for three years. A lot of things can happen in three years, and we can be out of office.
“In politics, one week is too long. If you’re a politician and you are looking for a bribe, you won’t want to wait for three years,” he quipped.
The hearing continues before High Court judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali.
Former Ambank officer Kystle Yap will take the stand later today.
Najib is accused of abusing his power as prime minister by giving government guarantees on SRC International’s RM4 billion loan from Retirement Fund Inc.
He was also charged with three counts of money laundering and three counts of criminal breach of trust in the transfer of RM42 million to his accounts from the former 1MDB unit. -FMT