Former 1MDB Non-Executive Director, 58-year-old Tan Sri Ismee Ismail, has changed his testimony and admitted in the High Court that a total of RM2.28 billion from the state fund had gone into the personal accounts of former Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, between 2011 and 2014.
Based on a report by Bernama, Ismee had changed his mind on the matter and agreed with the prosecution after being shown a flow chart of several layers of processes involving Deutsche Bank and Islamic Medium Term Notes (IMTN) loan facilities.
This comes in contrary with his previous testimony that Najib did not benefit from 1MDB money.
In the documents shown to Ismee by Senior Deputy Public Prosecutor, Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram, the amount had gone through several layers of processes before ending up in Najib’s personal Ambank accounts with the final numbers 694 and 880.
“Would you like to reconsider your answer that the accused did not receive any benefit from all these transactions?” Sri Ram had asked, to which Ismee responded, “All of these documents were not shown to me during cross-examination.”
When asked again if he would like to change his answer, Ismee shared, “From the chart, I can see a number of the funds have gone into the accounts.”
Sri Ram questioned, “You mean, a sum of the funds belonging to 1MDB had gone into the accused’s accounts?” to which Ismee agreed.
Earlier, Sri Ram had also asked Ismee about his views on the relationship between Najib and fugitive businessman, Jho Low.
“During that period, from your observations, what can you conclude about the relationship between Jho Low and Najib?”
“I believe they have a close relationship,” Ismee replied, adding that he does not have any personal knowledge of how Najib and Jho Low shared 1MDB funds.
Stay tuned for more updates.
Also read: Jho Low Lost Over RM109 Million in One Night at a Las Vegas Casino
