Kuala Lumpur: The chairman of The Edge Media Group told the High Court in the Najib Razak 1MDB trial that he did not hold a grudge against the former prime minister despite a three-month suspension of his company’s financial publications in July 2015.
Tong Kooi Ong testified that the financial publications had run many news stories about 1MDB’s state of affairs during Najib’s tenure as prime minister.
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As a result, the government suspended the papers for three months in July 2015, he said, although the suspension was lifted by the High Court later that year.
“Paul (Stadlen) warned me that the PMO (Prime Minister’s Office) was ‘all powerful’ and that we should be careful,” said Tong. Stadlen is Najib’s former media adviser.
Tong was responding to questions posed to him by ad hoc prosecutor Gopal Sri Ram in relation to the publications’ 1MDB news coverage.
- Najib shows Tong the door -
Tong also told the court about a meeting he had with Najib at the former prime minister’s Langgak Duta house.
He said the meeting was set up shortly after he spoke to former Baling MP Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim.
“(Azeez) asked me to share with (Najib) what I learned about 1MDB,” he said.
Tong said Najib looked tired when they met on March 6, 2015.
“We sat diagonally from each other in (Najib’s) living room. He proceeded to give me his view that The Edge’s articles on 1MDB were wrong.
“He explained to me that 1MDB was borrowing excessively and had problems with debt repayment,” Tong said.
Tong said he moved away from his seat, sat next to Najib and showed the then prime minister some of his notes as well as copies of former PetroSaudi director Xavier Justo’s emails.
One of the emails said that PSI (PetroSaudi International) was a private company, and was not owned by the Saudi Arabian government.
“I explained to him that from the US$1 billion 1MDB invested in the joint venture with PSI, US$700 million went to Good Star Limited,” Tong said, adding that the recipient of the funds was a company which belonged to fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho (commonly known as Jho Low).
Tong said former 1MDB CEO Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi took instructions from Low.
“I told (Najib) what Jho Low did was wrong and that he should be held accountable.
“He (Najib) stood up and opened the door for me to leave,” said Tong.
He said The Edge continued to publish news stories about 1MDB after that meeting with Najib.
As a result, Jahabar Sadiq, who was the editor of The Malaysian Insider at the time, and several journalists from the news portal were investigated and detained for one night.
“I was banned from leaving Malaysia and investigated by LHDN (Inland Revenue Board) for money laundering and tax evasion,” Tong added.
Najib is standing trial on 25 counts of money laundering and abuse of power over the alleged misuse of 1MDB funds amounting to RM2.28 billion deposited into his AmBank accounts between February 2011 and December 2014.
The hearing continues before Justice Collin Lawrence Sequerah on Thursday.
