Kuala Lumpur: Former Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) governor Tan Sri Zeti Akhtar Aziz today gave the names of three 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) officials that the central bank had recommended in 2015 to be charged, but confirmed that the attorney general did not charge them.
Zeti, 76, said this while testifying as the 46th prosecution witness in former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s trial over RM2.28 billion of 1MDB funds.
Asked by Najib’s lead defence lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah who were the individuals in 1MDB that BNM had recommended to be charged, Zeti named them as “Shahrol the CEO, Casey Tang, and Nik Faisal. These are the three.”
She was referring to 1MDB’s former CEO Datuk Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi, 1MDB’s former executive director for business development Casey Tang Keng Chee, and 1MDB’s former chief investment officer Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil.
Zeti confirmed to Shafee that BNM had recommended to the attorney general for these three to be charged.
Shafee: He did not charge these people?
Zeti: No.
Previously, Zeti had testified that BNM had on August 13, 2015, submitted an investigation paper to the Attorney General’s Chambers (AGC) with the recommendation to charge 1MDB and its senior officers.
Zeti had previously said BNM had found that 1MDB and its officers had given false information to the central bank when applying for permission to send money out of Malaysia, and had also given all relevant information to Najib’s bank accounts to law enforcement agencies.
But Zeti had said that the AGC had for unknown reasons decided on September 11, 2015, to classify BNM’s investigation paper as “No Further Action”, despite the “damning evidence” in BNM’s investigation paper on 1MDB.
She had said BNM had on October 1, 2015 wrote to the AGC to reconsider the decision, but said the AGC did not reply to the central bank’s appeal.
Tan Sri Mohamed Apandi Ali was the attorney general at that time.
Najib’s 1MDB trial before Judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah resumes tomorrow, with Shafee expected to continue cross-examining Zeti.
