1MDB audit excluded Najib’s personal bank accounts, Tony Pua tells court

 

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 6 — The High Court here today heard that the Auditor-General’s interim report stated that its audit was limited to 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), with no investigations or inquiries allowed into former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak’s personal bank accounts.

Former Public Accounts Committee (PAC) member Tony Pua, 54, said he was familiar with the contents of the report, having read it as a PAC member at the material time.

He said this when reading out his witness statement on the fourth day of the trial of 1MDB’s USD5.64 billion civil suit against Najib and six others before Judicial Commissioner Mohamad Redzuan Idrus.

Pua, the plaintiffs’ second witness, said the Auditor-General had to conduct the audit by reviewing only 1MDB’s audited financial statements and supporting documents provided by the relevant auditors due to a substantial lack of cooperation from the company.

“1MDB failed to provide many critical documents, including but not limited to investment agreements and bank statements of its foreign subsidiaries. The scope of the Auditor-General’s audit was also strictly limited to 1MDB, and no investigations or questions were allowed into Najib’s personal bank accounts,” he said.

Pua further said that with the Auditor-General’s interim report, then Finance Minister II Datuk Seri Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah, urged critics of 1MDB to stop making unfounded allegations as he said that the Auditor-General’s internal report on its audit of 1MDB had found “no evidence of wrongdoing”.

Earlier, the court allowed an application by Najib’s lead counsel Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah to expunge several paragraphs of Pua’s witness statements as it contained opinion and hearsay.

The expunged passages primarily referred to media reports on the 1MDB scandal during Najib’s administration, including several articles published by Sarawak Report.

On Dec 26, 2025, the High Court sentenced Najib to 15 years’ imprisonment and fined him RM11.4 billion after finding him guilty on four counts of abuse of power and 21 counts of money laundering involving RM2.3 billion in 1MDB funds.

1MDB and its subsidiaries – 1MDB Energy Holdings Limited, 1MDB Energy Limited, 1MDB Energy (Langat) Limited and Global Diversified Investment Company Limited, formerly known as 1MDB Global Investments Limited, filed the civil suit on May 7, 2021.

They named Najib; 1MDB’s former finance director Terrence Geh Choh Heng; former executive director Casey Tang Keng Chee; former chief investment officer Vincent Beng Huat Koh; former chief operating officer Radhi Mohamad; former investment director Kelvin Tan Kay Jim; and former chief investment officer Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil, as defendants.

The writ of summons stated that the plaintiffs, among other things, accused the defendants of breach of trust, breach of statutory duty, abuse of power and conspiracy to misappropriate 1MDB funds.

The trial continues on Monday. — Bernama