KUALA LUMPUR: The lavish spending and glamorous lifestyle of fugitive financier Low Taek Jho, or better known as Jho Low, became the subject of contention during the cross-examination of a witness in the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) trial.

       Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s lead counsel Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah was pressing former 1MDB chief financial officer (CFO) Azmi Tahir on Low’s spending, which the lawyer described as “close to insanity”.

       Muhammad Shafee said this should have put those in the company on their toes.

       The High Court was shown a clip of one of Low’s parties, including a vacation in St Tropez, a “champagne war”, with the likes of socialite and heiress Paris Hilton attending.

       Muhammad Shafee: Were you perturbed by the news splashed worldwide of Jho Low’s activities?

       Azmi: Yes.

       Azmi said he was “generally concerned” about the news about Low.

       “If he really was doing all these things, money going out of the company... I am the CFO so of course I would be concerned,” the witness said here yesterday.

       The lawyer suggested Low’s extravagant lifestyle should have raised more suspicion and outrage given that the company was going downhill but Azmi said the two – Low’s lifestyle and 1MDB – were separate matters.

       “That is his private life. I wouldn’t know what source of wealth he has,” Azmi said.

       Muhammad Shafee: Yes, his personal life is his issue but 1MDB is going broke. If 1MDB is running well, then it’s OK. If he wants to drink champagne and womanise, that’s OK. But the company is bleeding money, so you didn’t question his private life?

       Azmi: I don’t understand the links you made. I am only concerned with his fraudulent transactions in 1MDB.

       Muhammad Shafee: Weren’t you concerned the man who was running behind the scenes was having this lavish lifestyle?

       Azmi: It is two different things. His lifestyle doesn’t relate to the company.

       Muhammad Shafee suggested that Azmi was only “quietly concerned” about Low’s lifestyle because he was receiving bribes from Low, to which the witness disagreed.

       The lawyer also suggested to Azmi that some of the remittance he had made – said to be transacted without the approval of 1MDB’s board of directors and ended up in a company linked to Low – had contributed to Low’s lavish spendings.

       Muhammad Shafee: If you did not remit the money, he would not have spent this money.

       Azmi: The transfer was not for his purposes. It was based on agreement. I didn’t know something else was going on.

       Najib, 69, is facing four charges of using his position to obtain bribes totalling RM2.28bil from 1MDB funds and 21 charges of money laundering involving the same amount.

       Case management is fixed before Justice Collin Lawrence Sequerah tomorrow.