- Former Prime Minister Najib indicted on four counts of corruption.
- The former prime minister also faces 21 counts of money laundering.
- $4.5 billion stolen; more than $1 billion flowed into accounts linked to Najib.
KUALA LUMPUR: Jailed former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak was found guilty of abuse of power on Friday in the largest-ever trial in the multi-billion dollar 1MDB scandal, a decision that could have significant political repercussions.
The judge has not yet issued the full verdict or sentence.
Malaysian and U.S. investigators say at least $4.5 billion was stolen from 1Malaysia Development Berhad, a state fund that Najib co-founded in 2009 while in power. More than $1 billion is believed to have been transferred to accounts linked to Najib, who has always denied any wrongdoing.
Najib was charged with four counts of corruption and 21 counts of money laundering for receiving illegal transfers of more than 2.3 billion ringgit ($569.45 million) from 1MDB. He had consistently denied any wrongdoing.
“The defendant’s claim that the charges against him were a witch hunt and politically motivated was refuted by the cold, hard and indisputable evidence against him which indicated that the defendant abused his own position of power within 1MDB, coupled with the sweeping powers vested in him,” Judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah said during the ongoing reading of the verdict.
Najib could face maximum prison terms of 15 to 20 years on each charge, as well as a fine of up to five times the value of the alleged embezzlement.
Najib, 72, has been in prison since August 2022, when Malaysia’s top court upheld a verdict convicting him of corruption for illegally receiving funds from a 1MDB unit. His 12-year prison sentence in that case was halved last year by a pardons board.
Link to the fugitive financier
Last year, Najib apologized for mishandling the scandal while in power but always denied any wrongdoing, repeatedly saying he was misled by 1MDB officials and fugitive financier Jho Low about the source of the funds.
Justice Sequerah, reading the verdict, had earlier said the evidence revealed that Najib had an “unmistakable bond and connection” with Low, who acted as the then prime minister’s “proxy and intermediary” in the 1MDB affairs.
Low, who has been indicted in the United States for his central role in the affair, denies any wrongdoing and his whereabouts are unknown.
Najib argued that he was misled by Low and other 1MDB officials into believing that funds deposited into his account were donations from the Saudi royal family.
But Sequerah said Najib’s argument was “implausible” and dismissed letters about donations produced by Najib that allegedly came from the Saudi royal family, saying they were not supported by evidence and were likely fakes.
“The compelling conclusion is that the account of Arab donations is not meritorious…the evidence unequivocally indicates that the funds actually came from 1MDB funds,” Sequerah said.
Government test
The verdict came just days after another court rejected Najib’s request to serve his prison sentence under house arrest – a decision that reignited tensions within the administration of current Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.
Najib’s party, the United Malays National Organisation, campaigned against Anwar in the 2022 election but joined his coalition to form a government after voting ended in a hung parliament.
Some UMNO leaders expressed disappointment at the decision to deny Najib house arrest and others were angered by social media posts from some members of Anwar’s coalition celebrating the earlier decision.
Anwar called for calm on Tuesday, calling on all parties to accept the court’s verdict with “all patience and wisdom.”
