Arul Kanda says unaware of judge Nazlan's involvement in 1MDB loan

Former 1MDB CEO Arul Kanda Kandasamy told the Kuala Lumpur High Court today that he had no personal knowledge of the involvement of then High Court judge Mohd Nazlan Ghazali in the RM4.17 billion loan to the sovereign wealth fund.

In fact, Arul Kanda said he never directly met Nazlan, who was the general legal counsel of Maybank Group at the time.

Nazlan, who is now a Court of Appeal judge, convicted and sentenced former prime minister Najib Razak on July 28, 2020 to 12 years in jail and fined him RM210 million for misappropriating RM42 million in SRC International Bhd funds.

Arul Kanda, the 15th prosecution witness, said that in relation to the loan 1MDB took from Maybank, he always dealt with other bankers such as Michael Oh-Lau.

He said this during cross-examination by Najib’s lead counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah in the trial of Najib and Arul Kanda for allegedly tampering with the final 1MDB audit report.
 
Shafee: Did any of these officers make you aware that they would have to get the go-ahead from their bosses?

Arul Kanda: Not directly... I was a banker. Before, if you had discussions on one level and within the bank, they would have to go through their own approval process.

Shafee: In legal terms, who was the general legal counsel for Maybank Group?

Arul Kanda: Nazlan. I’m unsure of the full name.

Shafee: Was it Mohd Nazlan Ghazali?

Arul Kanda: Yes, (but) I had never met him before.

Shafee: I suggest that a loan of this size must get approval from the legal side of the bank.

Arul Kanda: I presume so.
 
During re-examination by lead prosecutor Gopal Sri Ram, the witness said he had no knowledge of Nazlan’s involvement in the loan process.

Sri Ram: It was suggested to you by the defence that Nazlan had a hand in this (loan to 1MBD)?

Arul Kanda: Yes.

Sri Ram: Do you have personal knowledge of this (Nazlan having a hand in this loan to 1MBD)?

Arul Kanda: No.

Arul Kanda also told the court that former 1MDB chief financial officer Azmi Tahir had suppressed information from reaching the National Audit Department (NAD) when the sovereign wealth fund was in the process of being audited in 2015.
 
Arul Kanda further said that he was not responsible for the day-to-day operations of 1MDB, nor did he directly correspond with NAD for the audit process as such tasks were Azmi’s responsibilities.

Najib, 69, who is serving a 12-year jail term in the SRC International case, is charged with using his position to order amendments to the final 1MDB audit report before it was presented to the Public Accounts Committee, to avoid any action being taken against him.

Arul Kanda is charged with abetting Najib in making the amendments to the report to protect Najib from being subjected to action.

The offence was allegedly committed at the Prime Minister's Department Complex, Federal Government Administrative Centre, Putrajaya between Feb 22 and 26, 2016.

Both Najib and Arul Kanda were charged under Section 23 (1) of the MACC Act 2009, which provides for a jail term of up to 20 years and a fine of no less than five times the amount of gratification or RM10,000, whichever is higher, upon conviction.

The hearing before judge Mohamed Zaini Mazlan continues on Sept 2.