1MDB trial: Kee Kok Thiam admitted depositing cash into Najib’s accounts, worried ex-PM would be probed under Dr M, court told
One excerpt from Kee Kok Thiam’s statement said he and others were in Phuket when they learned Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad had become prime minister, prompting concerns Datuk Seri Najib Razak might be investigated, with Jho Low advising them to delay returning to Malaysia to observe the political situation. — Picture by Yusof Mat Isa
Thursday, 10 Apr 2025 4:23 PM MYT
PUTRAJAYA, April 10 — Kee Kok Thiam, who was an associate of Malaysian fugitive Low Taek Jho and is now dead, had told the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) that he had made cash deposits into then prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s accounts from 2014 to 2015, the High Court heard today.
Kee had also told the MACC that there were concerns that Najib would be investigated when Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad became the prime minister again in 2018.
This was confirmed by MACC officer Raywel Anduroh, who was the investigating officer in charge of recovering assets owned by Kee, in the High Court today.
Raywel was testifying as the 18th defence witness in Najib’s 1MDB trial, where over RM2 billion of 1MDB’s funds allegedly entered Najib’s personal bank accounts.
Deputy public prosecutor Deepa Nair Thevaharan today read out two excerpts of 23-page Kee’s statement recorded in Malay by the MACC during investigations in May 2023.
The first excerpt Deepa read out was on page nine of the statement where Kee was recorded telling the MACC: “I confirm that I had several times from 2014 until 2015 made cash deposits at the counter into AmBank account owned by Datuk Seri Najib Razak at AmBank Jalan Raja Chulan, Kuala Lumpur.
“I confirm that I made all those cash deposit transactions on the request and order of Nik Faisal as the Power of Attorney holder for the account owned by Najib,” Deepa said when reading out the first excerpt.
The second excerpt that Deepa read out was on page twelve of Kee’s statement to the MACC: “While in Phuket, we got to know that Tun Mahathir became prime minister and we worried (risau) if Datuk Seri Najib Razak will be investigated. Jho Low asked us to not return to Malaysia first to see the current political situation in Malaysia.
“Jho Low told me that if Datuk Seri Najib Razak is investigated and I return to Malaysia, I may be investigated because of depositing money into Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s account. This caused me to be very worried about returning to Malaysia,” Deepa said when reading out the second excerpt.
Deepa did not specify who the “we” in the second excerpt referred to, and had only read out the excerpt.
Raywel confirmed and verified these two excerpts in Kee’s statement to the MACC.
Previously in this 1MDB trial, former AmBank banker Joanna Yu had as the 41st prosecution witness confirmed that she was in contact with Low, who had made arrangements for individuals to deposit cash into Najib’s AmBank accounts to prevent Najib’s cheques from being rejected due to insufficient funds.
Yu confirmed that Najib’s authorised account handler Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil had even on several occasions asked to ensure the cheques do not bounce and that Nik Faisal had himself said Kee would be making the cash deposits into the account.
Yu had confirmed that this meant Nik Faisal as the mandate holder was aware of the large sums being put into Najib’s accounts at the bank counter.
Low is also known as Jho Low, and the prosecution has argued that he is the mirror image of Najib. Najib had in this trial objected to this description.
Among other things, Raywel today confirmed that MACC had recorded this statement from Kee on May 3, 2023 at 11am at the MACC headquarters in Putrajaya.
An unnamed suspect in the 1MDB case — now believed to be Kee — was previously reported to have been brought back to Malaysia via KLIA’s Terminal 2 on May 3, 2023 with the cooperation of enforcement agencies abroad.
On May 31, 2023, Kee’s lawyers confirmed that he passed away in a hospital on May 29, 2023 and that he had died of a sudden massive stroke.
Today, Raywel said MACC did not arrest Kee, and said he had no knowledge on whether the police had arrested Kee upon his return to Malaysia.
Asked by Najib’s lead defence lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, Raywel who is in MACC’s anti-money laundering division said his investigation was on a complaint regarding assets owned by Kee in Singapore.
Raywel also confirmed to Shafee that Kee had in his statement said he went to China, Macau, Cambodia and Thailand, and that Kee did not say in this statement that he had been to the UK or London.
An undated file photograph of fugitive financier Low Taek Jho. — Picture via Facebook
Jasmine Loo was not charged in 2018, but arrest warrants were issued
Earlier today, Nabilla Md Yusof, an assistant registrar at the Kuala Lumpur courts’ criminal cases registration division, appeared as the 16th defence witness in the 1MDB trial.
Nabilla confirmed that the Magistrates’ Courts in Kuala Lumpur did issue arrest warrants in 2018 for 1MDB’s former in-house lawyer Jasmine Loo, but said that Loo was not charged in court during that process.
Nabilla brought the Kuala Lumpur courts’ three files for three separate applications in 2018 by the police and the MACC to obtain arrest warrants against Loo at the Magistrates’ Courts.
She confirmed the police had made the first two applications on December 4, 2018 and December 17, 2018 to the Magistrates’ Court, which separately involved charges under Malaysia’s anti-money laundering laws and the Capital Markets and Services Act 2007.
As for the third application made on June 29, 2018 by the MACC to the Magistrates’ Court, this involved a charge alleging that Loo was involved in a criminal conspiracy to help Najib who had used his position to get a bribe of around RM15 million in Najib’s AmIslamic bank account with the account numbering ending 9694.
When asked by the prosecution’s deputy public prosecutor Ahmad Akram Gharib, Nabilla confirmed that these three cases are merely applications for arrest warrants on Loo, and that these three cases are not where Loo was charged.
Asked by Akram, Nabilla confirmed that Loo was not present during all three court proceedings to get the arrest warrants, also confirming that the arrest warrants would have been unnecessary if Loo was present.
Nabilla confirmed that the charges attached to the police’s and MACC’s applications were never read out to Loo in court as she was not there, and that Loo was not charged in court with these charges.
Akram: Therefore I say she was not charged, the only purpose for attaching the charges was to get warrant of arrest?
Nabilla: Correct.
Nabilla confirmed that those three cases — which were solely on applications to get arrest warrants — were closed, since the courts had granted the arrest warrants as applied.
Nabilla said she does not know the status of those arrest warrants, as that her duties do not involve information on whether those arrest warrants were carried out.
Asked by Shafee on what had happened to all the charges against Loo that were attached to the arrest warrant applications, Nabilla confirmed that she did not know.
On December 17, 2018, then attorney general Tommy Thomas in a press statement said criminal charges were filed against investment bank Goldman Sachs’ subsidiaries, Goldman Sachs employees Tim Leissner and Roger Ng Chong Hwa, 1MDB’s ex-employee Loo, and Low.
The Attorney General’s Chambers’ website on December 17, 2018 uploaded four sets of these criminal charges, including four charges that were used to apply for Loo’s arrest warrant in 2018.
Salmi Hazlinawati Nawawi, also an assistant registrar in the criminal cases registration division for the Sessions Courts and Magistrates Court at the Kuala Lumpur courts, today also appeared as the 17th defence witness.
Salmi Hazlinawati was in court only to produce the courts’ records of three criminal cases involving former Goldman Sachs banker Roger Ng at the Sessions Court in Kuala Lumpur, including previous approved applications to extradite Ng to the US.
Najib’s 1MDB trial before trial judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah resumes next Tuesday.
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