Jho Low informed establishment of 1MDB two years before it was officially formed - Witness

KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court here today was told that fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho or Jho Low had informed AmBank that his team was looking to set up a sovereign wealth fund (the predecessor of 1Malaysia Development Berhad) to raise funds to develop the State of Terengganu, two years before it was officially formed.

Joanna Yu Ging Ping, 51, a former relationship manager at the bank, said that, in fact, she was introduced to Jho Low, Tan Vern Tact, and Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil by her then team leader, Chan Wan Seong in 2007.

Initially established in 2009 as an entity owned by the Terengganu state government, the Terengganu Investment Authority (TIA) was later renamed as 1MDB.

When explaining her introduction to Jho Low, Joanna said that she got to know Jho Low when she was assigned by Chan to handle the loans of Majestic Masterpiece Sdn Bhd sometime in 2007.

"Not long after the Majestic Masterpiece loan was approved by the bank and the acquisition of the entities above completed, Jho Low informed the bank that his team was looking to set up a sovereign wealth fund to raise funds to develop the State of Terengganu," she said.

The 41st prosecution witness said this when reading out her witness statement at Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak's corruption and money laundering trial involving RM2.3 billion belonging to 1MDB.

She said that she had then attended a meeting in 2009 with Jho Low and several others to come up with the related bond issuance.

The others who attended the meeting were Casey Tang and Datuk Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi, several AmBank officers such as Chan, as well as several members of the bank's debt capital market division.

Tang would later become 1MDB's business development executive director and Shahrol Azral would become the fund's chief executive officer (CEO).

"In this meeting, Jho Low and Tang asked many questions and inquired about the typical issues involved in the issuance of a bond, the structures and the timeline to issuance. We were initially asked to provide a proposal for a RM10 billion-bond issuance with a 30-year tenure.

"My colleagues from the Treasury and Debt Capital Market division shared that there may not be enough investors for the size of RM10 billion and that a 30-year bond tenure in Malaysia was also unprecedented. There were several suggestions discussed, amongst them was to obtain a government guarantee for the bonds, to reduce the size of the bond issue, and also to shorten the tenure of the bond. Following this meeting, there were several other discussions.

"Eventually the client (TIA) agreed to a reduced issuance size of RM5 billion-government guarantee bond for a period of 30 years. I am not sure who made the decision to have a government guarantee for this bond, but as far as I know, the Bank's Treasury/Debt Capital Market did share that a government guarantee may be required for a bond period exceeding 20 years.

"Normally, it is the customer who makes the final decision on the bond structure and for 1MDB, the client was instrumental in procuring the government guarantee for the bond," said the witness adding that once the issuance of the bond was agreed upon, TIA opened an account at AmBank for the purpose of receiving the bonds' proceeds.

Najib, 69, faces four charges of using his position to obtain bribes amounting to RM2.3 billion belonging to 1MDB and 21 charges of money laundering involving the same amount.

The trial before Judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah continues.

-- BERNAMA