KUALA LUMPUR (March 27): Datuk Seri Najib Razak was the “grand chess-master” who “moved things around” to facilitate projects involving SRC International Sdn Bhd and even 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB), the court heard on Wednesday.

Datuk Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi, a former director of SRC and former 1MDB chief executive officer (CEO), testified that whenever the two companies were mandated to execute a project, there would be larger pieces that were “moved around” to facilitate these projects, resulting in the SRC International board agreeing with some decisions on the assumption that Najib had access to more information (than they were privy to).

Testifying in the ongoing US$1.18 billion civil action brought by SRC against Najib, who was also former finance minister, Shahrol alluded to the placing of loans that SRC had acquired from Retirement Fund Inc (KWAP) into “time deposits” before they were to be utilised for investments in Indonesia, in the energy and resources sectors.

“My view at that time was that Najib was like a grand chess-master on the (chess) board. One clear example in the SRC case is that [investing in] uranium was put into SRC’s mandate. Around 2010, there was already a plan to diversify our electricity sources.

“And sure enough, a separate company called Malaysian Nuclear Power Corporation was set up sometime in 2010 to kickstart the nuclear programme in Malaysia. That was transformed into the Nuclear Energy Plan Implementation Office (NEPIO), (which was put) directly under the PM’s Department,” Shahrol said to defence counsel Farhan Shafee’s question.

Shahrol elaborated that this was also his experience in 1MDB, where he served as CEO.

https://www.theedgemarkets.com/node/706170