00:00Former 1MDB chairman told the High Court today that Najib Razak merely made a polite request
00:06for 1MDB's auditors to sign off on the company's 2013 financials.
00:11Testifying in the former prime minister's 1MDB trial, Chehlodin Wak Kamaruddin said
00:15he attended a meeting at Najib's Langgat Duta House on December 15, 2013, together
00:21with the company's former CEO Hazim Abdul Rahman and its ex-CFO Azmi Tahir.
00:27Also present were Johan Idris, KPMG's then-managing partner, and two other partners from the audit
00:32firm Razlan Rahman and Feng Mangkong.
00:35The court had previously heard that KPMG had refused to sign 1MDB's 2013 financial statements
00:42after failing to get proper answers to questions about the authenticity of 1MDB's $2.3 billion
00:47US investment in Brazen Sky Ltd.
00:50KPMG was subsequently replaced by Deloitte.
00:53Chehlodin also told the court that contrary to his testimony, Johan's notes on the meeting
00:58did not suggest that he had been intimidated by Najib into signing off on the financials.
01:03Najib himself denied ordering KPMG to sign off on the 2013 financial statements and acknowledged
01:09that the auditors were unhappy with 1MDB for failing to provide sufficient documents.
01:15Najib is on trial for 25 charges of abuse of power and money laundering, over funds
01:20amounting to RM2.28 billion that were deposited into his mBank accounts between February 2011
01:26and December 2014.
01:29Hanyu Zhou, FMT News.
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