Former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak set, approved and paid himself remunerations of RM120,000 annually as the chairman of 1Malaysia Development Bhd’s (1MDB) board of advisors.
He received the money for his role in the debt-laden company while he has always denied any knowledge of the transactions the company was involved in and denied any wrongdoing in the heist of the century.
Meanwhile, members of the board of advisors received RM96,000, local news reports say.
This was revealed to the High Court in Kuala Lumpur yesterday (Sept 25) by former 1MDB chief executive officer Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi.
He said these amounts were determined and approved by Najib himself, in his capacity as the chairman which will be brought up in the board of directors’ meeting for approval.
Shahrol also said Najib Razak agreed that the auditor-general need not review the accounts of 1MDB.
He said Najib wrote to him on December 22, 2009 to say there was no need for the A-G to perform due diligence in the transfer of ownership from Terengganu Investment Authority to the state investment firm.
“In this letter, it stated that Datuk Seri Najib acknowledged that the 1MDB board of advisers agree for the federalisation of TIA, as approved by the Cabinet, to become 1MDB was carried out a basis of as-is, where-is and there is no need for an audit and due diligence to be carried out by Auditor-General of Malaysia as the transfer of share ownership has been completed.
“Datuk Seri Najib also agreed with 1MDB board of advisers’ decision, that is 1MDB as a company incorporated according to the Companies Act 1965 must be audited by professional external auditors appointed by the board of directors and the need for the auditor-general to audit 1MDB does not rise at all,” Shahrol said. -/TISG