NAJIB TRIAL | Najib Abdul Razak and fugitive businessperson Jho Low had attempted to cover up the 1MDB scandal after it became public, lead prosecutor Gopal Sri Ram told the Kuala Lumpur High Court this morning.

He said this included creating sham documents to pretend that the former premier received a donation from a member of the Saudi royalty when the sum originated from the state-owned firm.

Najib is facing 25 charges of abuse of power and money laundering involving RM2.28 billion.

"After the 1MDB scandal broke in early July 2015, the accused with his mirror image Jho Low took steps to cover his tracks.

"Sham documents were produced to pretend a donation from an Arab prince. Among these were letters and four cheques each for a sum of US$25 million purportedly written out by a person said to be the Arab donor.

"But these cheques were never meant to be encashed and were never encashed," said Sri Ram.

He added that two royal personalities were also involved in the misappropriation of 1MDB funds, particularly in the Good Star phase.

They were one "Prince Faisal" and another "Prince Turki."

"Prince Turki, the accused and Jho Low were so close that they holidayed together on a yacht in the south of France," Sri Ram told the court.

He said while the misappropriation of 1MDB funds involved several phases and characters, Najib ultimately played the pivotal role with the intent to enrich himself.

"The prosecution will also produce evidence to show that the accused took active steps to evade justice.

"He interfered with the course of the investigation of this case which came to be known as the 1MDB scandal. He took active steps to effect a cover-up of his criminal acts.

“The prosecution will rely on all this evidence to show that the accused had the requisite mens rea (intention of wrongdoing) when the offences with which he is charged were committed," he added.

Summary of Najib’s 1MDB ‘donation’ case Najib is facing 25 charges of receiving RM2.28b, which originated from 1MDB through Tanore Finance Corp, a company owned by Eric Tan, a close associate of fugitive businessperson Jho Low. 21 money laundering charges Received RM2.08b from Tanore Paid to five recipients: Umno (RM20m) Batu Kawan Umno (RM100,000) Lim Soon Peng (RM246,000) ORB Solutions Sdn Bhd (RM2m) Semarak Consortium Sdn Bhd (RM303,000) Returned RM2.03b to Tanore in August 2013 Punishment: Maximum 5 years in jail or fine of up to RM5m or both each charge

money laundering charges 4 abuse of power charges Received RM2.28b of graft Section 23(1) of MACC Act 2009 Punishment: Maximum 20 years in jail and a fine of up to 5 times the value of the gratification or RM10,000, whichever is higher

abuse of power charges Click Tap to view information on judge, prosecution and defence team Presiding High Court Judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah Prosecution Gopal Sri Ram (lead), Ahmad Akram Gharib, Mohammad Mustaffa P Kunyalam, Deepa Nair Thevaharan, Nadia Mohd Izhar, Najwa Bistamam, Haznida Harris Lee, and Tan Song Yan. Defence Muhammad Shafee Abdullah (lead), Mohd Yusof Zainal Abiden, Harvinderjit Singh, Kamarul Hisham Kamaruddin, Chong Loong Men, Devanandan S Subramaniam, Farhan Read, Wan Aizuddin Wan Mohammed, Rahmat Hazlan, Muhammad Farhan Shafee, Tiara Katrina Fuad, Nur Syahirah Hanapiah, and Zahria Eleena Redza

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