Financial fraud investigator Richard Templeman also told the court that Low, better known as Jho Low, transferred US$306,000 and US$100,000 in 1MDB funds to reality TV star Kim Kardashian and her ex-husband, Kris Humphries.
He was testifying at the trial of the sovereign wealth fund’s US$6.59 billion lawsuit against former 1MDB chairman Irwan Serigar Abdullah and former CEO Arul Kanda Kandasamy, Kosmo reported.
Templeman, the investigations director of international firm Kroll Advisory Ltd, said the US$2.025 million was transferred to Pharrell via Talamasca Inc, a company linked to the artiste.
“Investigations revealed that Jho Low transferred millions of dollars allegedly received from 1MDB through Good Star Ltd,” the first witness of the plaintiff told the court via Zoom.
Good Star is a shell company owned by Low.
Templeman said the funds Low had transferred to the celebrities were misappropriated from a joint venture agreement between 1MDB and Petrosaudi Ltd, and transferred to Good Star.
He said there were a series of fund transfers via offshore companies, with the monies used for the personal benefit of his co-conspirators, relatives and associates.
“Good Star also transferred US$13.5 million to a Riyad Bank account held by a ‘Prince Faisal Turki Al Saud’ and ‘Prince Saud Abdulaziz Al-Saud’ in two stages — US$12 million on June 10, 2011 and US$1.5 million on June 30, 2011.
“On June 13, 2022, after receiving US$12 million from Good Star’s account, US$10 million was transferred from the (Riyad Bank) account to the AmBank account owned by Najib Razak.”
He added that this was based on checks on the bank statements of Najib’s AmBank account, saying the value in ringgit matched the US dollar value based on the exchange rate then.
In May 2021, 1MDB filed the suit against Irwan and Arul, accusing them of breach of trust and conspiracy that resulted in US$1.83 billion in losses related to the company’s investment in 1MDB-Petrosaudi, which was later converted into the Brazen Sky Ltd investment, said to be recoverable from the Bridge Global Fund.
It alleged that both defendants committed breach of trust and conspiracy by misappropriating US$3.5 billion in company funds paid to Aabar Investments and US$1.265 billion paid to the International Petroleum Investment Company on May 9, 2017.
1MDB claimed that Irwan colluded with Arul to execute an extension of an employment agreement, paying a substantial amount of RM2,905,200 to Arul, disregarding 1MDB’s interests, which resulted in losses and damages to the company.
1MDB is seeking US$6.59 billion in damages from both defendants and an additional RM2.9 million from Irwan related to the extension of the employment agreement.