KUALA LUMPUR: A former director of 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) today admitted that he had met Goldman Sachs banker Tim Leissner when the wealth fund was in the midst of issuing the Islamic Medium Term Notes (IMTN) valued at RM5 billion.
Tan Sri Ismee Ismail noted that the meeting took place sometime in 2012 when Goldman Sachs was in the midst of being appointed as consultants for the federal government backed bonds.
Ismee, who was called to the stand as a prosecution witness in Datuk Seri Najib Razak's trial involving 1MDB funds, admitted to the meeting when he was questioned by Najib's lawyer Datuk Hariharan Tara Singh.
He acknowledged that Leissner had presented Goldman Sachs' proposal at the 1MDB meeting to discuss the bonds.
The bonds, he said, were issued for a term of 30 years and involved a joint venture with a middle eastern company called Mubadala.
It involved a plan to develop Pulau Bidong, an island off Terengganu.
Leissner has been in the news of late following his testimony in the United States in the long-awaited trial of his colleague, former Goldman Sachs banker Roger Ng.
Ng has been charged by US authorities with conspiring to bribe officials and launder billions of dollars from 1MDB.
Leissner had testified after pleading guilty to charges of conspiring to launder money and violate bribery laws in connection with the 1MDB fraud.
He has struck a deal with the US government in the hope of receiving a more lenient sentence.
Meanwhile, Ismee was also questioned about how the Sultan of Terengganu, Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin had directed for the issuance of the IMTN bonds to be halted when he realised it could be detrimental to the state's finances.
He noted that this had been conveyed by the Ruler after he was summoned to the palace in May 2009.
However, he said by that time it was already too late as "the button had already been pushed".
Earlier, when asked how he was appointed as a director in 1MDB and its predecessor the Terengganu Investment Authority (TIA), Ismee said this was done after he received a call from the Terengganu palace.
He however claimed not to know who was behind his appointment.
"I just received a call in my office one day and they told me the palace has invited me over. I never actually checked or investigated who recommended me," he said in the trial where Najib is charged with four counts of using his position to obtain bribes of RM2.3 billion in 1MDB funds and 21 counts of money laundering involving the same amount.
The trial is being held before High Court Judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah.
