Unsure if Najib had read former 1MDB chairman's SMS on mismanagement - Court told

KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court here today was told that it could not be ascertained whether Datuk Seri Najib Razak had read an SMS sent by former 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) chairman Tan Sri Mohd Bakke Salleh over the company's mismanagement.

The former prime minister's lead counsel Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah said the defence did not even have a copy of the said SMS.

The counsel said this when questioning Mohd Bakke, the 15th prosecution witness at Najib's trial on the misappropriation of RM2.3 billion from 1MDB funds.

Muhammad Shafee: We don't know how short or extended your SMS was to my client. We don't have a copy of your SMS.

Mohd Bakke: I remember ... It was a lengthy SMS. I explained the payment of two tranches.

Muhammad Shafee: But we don't know whether the PM (Najib) managed to read the SMS or not. It is not like WhatsApp whereby we are able to see through the blue tick that the recipient has read the message.

Previously, it was reported that 1MDB's US$1 billion was placed in a joint venture, and it was paid out in two batches of US$700 million and US$300 million.

The US$300 million was channelled to the joint-venture company while the US$700 million was paid to Good Star Limited, a company owned by fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho or Jho Low.

Muhammad Shafee then questioned the witness whether Najib might have been misled by the 1MDB management and Jho Low, to which Mohd Bakke answered, "Yes, possible."

During previous proceedings, Mohd Bakke testified that before submitting his resignation letter, he sent an SMS to the accused to inform him of several matters which were instructed by the board of directors (BOD) to the 1MDB management but were not followed.

"However, I did not receive any response from Najib. It did not cross my mind to report to any relevant authorities the financial misconduct of the management of 1MDB because I assumed that I had already done so through my SMS to Najib. I hoped Najib will take necessary actions against the management of 1MDB if he found any misconduct on their part.

"Since my concerns did not get Najib's attention as he did not reply to my SMS, I had a feeling that he was involved and something wrong was happening without my knowledge. This was one of the main reasons I decided to resign," said Mohd Bakke.

Today, the court also heard that the 2016 Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report on issues faced by the sovereign wealth fund did not reflect what Mohd Bakke had exposed then in its entirety.

Mohd Bakke, who is now Petronas chairman, said a lot of what he had revealed to the PAC then had been omitted from the report which was later made public.

Najib, 68, is facing four charges of using his position to obtain bribes totalling RM2.3 billion from 1MDB and 21 charges of money laundering involving the same amount.

The trial before Judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah continues.

-- BERNAMA