KUALA LUMPUR: 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) was put in a difficult position during an audit process in 2015 after police seized its documents.
It happened one day before the interim report on the company was presented to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).
This was revealed at the High Court today during the trial of former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and former 1MDB chief executive officer Arul Kanda Kandasamy whoa re jointly-charged with tampering with the auditor-general's (A-G) final 1MDB audit report.
Under cross-examination, former National Audit Department (NAD) auditor Saadatul Nafisah Ahmad, who is the seventh prosecution witness, agreed with Arul Kanda's lawyer Datuk N. Sivananthan that six years ago on July 8, the police had raided 1MDB and seized documents from the company.
Saadatul said, however, she did not know what documents had been seized.
Sivananthan: Are you aware that the interim report to PAC was presented on July 9, 2015?
Saadatul: Yes, we presented it (the report)
Sivananthan: Are you also aware that the police had seized documents from 1MDB on July 8, 2015?
Saadatul: I heard in the news but I don't remember the exact date and what documents were seized.
Sivananthan: In the circumstances, do you agree with me that it would have put 1MDB in a little bit of a difficult position, bearing in mind that police had seized the documents. 1MDB therefore had to request those documents back from the authorities for the audit process?
Sadatul: Yes.
The lawyer then referred the witness to a document on the PAC proceedings report on Dec 1, 2015, and the latter confirmed a statement by Arul Kanda in the report addressing the problems 1MDB was facing in providing the documents to NAD.
Saadatul agreed with the lawyer that in the statement, Arul Kanda had taken the position that if he managed to get hold of the documents, he would submit it to the department.
She also agreed that following the raid, the police were the ones who had control over the documents.
The trial before judge Mohamed Zaini Mazlan will continue on Sept 27.
On Dec 12, 2019, Arul Kanda, 44, was charged with committing the offence between Feb 22 and 26, 2016.
He allegedly abetted Najib, 68, in using the latter's position as then-prime minister to order an amendment to the 1MDB final audit report.
On the same day, Najib was charged with using his position to order amendments to the 1MDB final audit report before it was tabled to the PAC to avoid any action being taken against him.
Najib was charged, in his capacity as a public officer, which was the prime minister, with using the position to obtain gratification for himself to evade disciplinary, civil or criminal action against him.