KUALA LUMPUR: There were some heated moments in Datuk Seri Najib Razak's corruption trial today when fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho's exorbitant lifestyle was brought up during the hearing.
The star witness, former 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) chief financial officer Azmi Tahir, repeatedly answered that 1MDB's board of directors (BoD) were not concerned about Low's lifestyle although it had come under the spotlight since 2010.
Najib's lead counsel Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah brought up the issue when cross examining Azmi.
He tendered several news articles and video footage depicting Low, better known as Jho Low, drinking expensive champagne while partying with celebrities such as Paris Hilton and Miranda Kerr.
Azmi, however, said Jho Low's lifestyle did not concern him and he was only focussed on 1MDB.
Shafee: Were you not concerned about Jho Low's private lifestyle? The man you said was the shadow director of 1MDB.
Azmi: These are two different things. I was concerned about 1MDB not doing well but his lifestyle was not necessarily related to the company.
Shafee: Spending hundreds of millions of dollars to buy artwork by Van Gogh and Monet usually is an act of money laundering. You did not raise suspicion and take it to the board?
Azmi: No. I don't think so.
Shafee said that Low would not have all that money if Azmi and 1MDB's former executive director Terence Geh, who was labelled as Low's proxy, did not approve the transfer of monies from 1MDB amounting to hundred millions of United States dollars.
However, Azmi replied that the money was not transferred for this purpose.
The trial got heated when Azmi said Shafee's line of questioning was not fair to him.
Azmi: I am not being combative but the questions must be fair to me.
Shafee: I believe everybody is being fair to you… you have done transactions without the BoD's approval but yet you are here as a witness.
Earlier, Shafee pointed out that Azmi had transferred US$790 million to Aabar Investments PJS Ltd (BVI) without informing the BoD.
Azmi, 48, was testifying as the 12th prosecution witness in Najib's trial in relation to more than RM2 billion of funds misappropriated from 1MDB.
The trial before judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah continues.
Najib, 69, is charged with 25 counts of abuse of power and money laundering involving RM2.28 billion of 1MDB funds which were deposited into his accounts between 2011 and 2014.
He faces 20 years' jail and fine, if convicted.