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Hermès Bags and Millions in Cash: The Fall of Malaysia’s Najib Razak


KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Former Malaysian prime minister, Najib Razak, arrived in a black sport utility vehicle and was ushered into the court by the back door. Dozens of jailers and policemen, some heavily armed, escorted him to a fifth-floor courtroom this month for his second trial on corruption charges.

Mr. Najib, the pampered son of the country’s second prime minister, Abdul Razak Hussein, was considered politically untouchable. Before Donald J. Trump became president of the United States, he called Mr. Najib “my favorite prime minister”.

But the law eventually caught up with the Malaysian graft. Last month, Mr. Najib began serving a 12-year prison sentence for pocketing millions of dollars in government funds. His downfall was due to his brazen behavior and his personal mantra: “cash is king”. While in power, he siphoned hundreds of millions of dollars from government funds to pay for his election campaigns and fund his lavish lifestyle.

Mr. Najib’s free-spending wife, Rosmah Mansor, known for her lavish jewelry and Hermès handbags, was also jailed. This month, she was sentenced to 10 years in prison for soliciting and accepting bribes, and ordered to pay an unusual $216 million fine.

In Malaysia, where officials have long been involved in unrestrained thefts and many voters have become disillusioned with rampant corruption, the judiciary has been praised for standing firm in its verdict on the case. celebrity couple and reaffirming the rule of law.

“Nobody expected this to happen in Southeast Asia,” said James Chin, professor of Asian studies at the University of Tasmania and an expert on Malaysian politics. “The feeling of being punished is always there. When you hit #1, you feel that you can do anything and you can get away with anything.”

When voters removed Mr. Najib from office in 2018 – the first time his political party, the United Malays National Organization, or UMNO, lost in national elections – the new government filed more than 40 lawsuits. criminal charges against him. At Mr Najib’s trial and on appeal, all nine judges who heard his case found him guilty. He faces four more trials and more trips from his cell to the courthouse.

“The whole world knows that Najib has committed many crimes,” said a former prime minister, Mahathir Mohamed, whose coalition defeated Mr. Najib and initiated criminal charges against him in 2018. “We are worried. that the courts can also be influenced by Najib, but they are clearly still very independent.”

A 2016 US Department of Justice investigation found that $731 million was transferred to Mr. Najib’s bank account from the government investment fund he oversees, 1 Malaysia Development Berhad, or 1MDB. At least $4.5 billion from the fund went missing. Former aides say Mr Najib was motivated by the need to fund his re-election campaigns. Most of the money has yet to be recovered.

“To convince people to support him, he had to steal money,” said Mahathir. “Everyone is so excited that he’s finally been jailed.”

Despite the gravity of the charges against him, Mr. Najib’s supporters hope he can make a comeback, get out of prison and revive his political career. For that to happen, Mr. Najib will need a pardon from the King of Malaysia, Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah.

After going to prison, he filed a request for amnesty to clear his guilt. Filing the petition allows him to keep his seat in Congress while his request is being considered.

UMNO still enjoys considerable support among ethnic Malays, who benefited during Najib’s nine years in power. Incumbent Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob, an ally of Najib, is under pressure from UMNO to call elections in November. A victory for the party could strengthen Mr Najib’s chances of early release.

Bald-headed and wearing glasses, Mr. Najib, 69, projects an image of a kind father on his major social media platforms. His wife Rosmah, 70, is considered by many to be a modern-day Lady Macbeth, who pressed her husband to steal government money to finance her international purchases.

She owns a pink diamond pendant worth $27.3 million that was purchased with money from the 1MDB investment fund, according to police. When officers searched the couple’s property in 2018, they drove away $273 million in cash and luxury goods, including 567 handbags, 423 watches and 14 crowns.

Liew Chin Tong, former Deputy Defense Minister, said: “Najib and Rosmah have boldly dominated Malaysia in a way that plundered the country.

At one point, Mr. Najib had hoped that Mr. Trump might help calm the 1MDB scandal. The relationship between Mr. Trump and Mr. Najib dates back to at least 2014, when they play golf together at Trump’s Bedminster Club in New Jersey.

After Mr Trump’s election, one of his top fundraisers, businessman Elliott Broidy, accept $9 million from fugitive Malaysian financier Jho Low, a friend of her son Rosmah from her first marriage, Riza Aziz. Mr. Low was a central figure in the founding of 1MDB and is now believed to be hiding in China.

This money is partly to lobby the Trump administration to drop its investigation into the missing 1MDB funds. Broidy successfully arranged for Najib to visit Trump at the White House in 2017, but there was no indication the president had sought to help him.

Mr Broidy pleaded guilty in 2020 to conspiracy to violate foreign lobbying laws. Mr. Trump pardoned him shortly before leaving office.

Mr. Najib has sentenced in 2020 on seven counts of money laundering, criminal breach of trust, and abuse of power to receive an illegal $9.8 million wire transfer from SRC International, a former unit of the investment fund commonly known as 1MDB.

Malaysia’s highest court keep the faith of Mr. Najib on August 23, and he was sent straight to prison. His latest trial is being held in the same courtroom and before the same judge who sentenced his wife. Since entering prison, Mr. Najib has repeatedly visited the hospital to be treated for high blood pressure.

Ms Rosmah, who is free while appealing her sentence, went to court earlier this month to watch her husband’s trial on charges of forging a 1MDB audit. Outside of court, she declined to speak to The New York Times.

At Rosmah’s trial, prosecutors argued that she had significant influence over her husband because of her “bossy” nature. In his ruling, Judge Mohamad Zaini Mazlan agreed.

He concluded: “It is clear that the defendant prevails over Najib. “She has control over him. She had no business to interfere with Najib’s duties or government affairs, but she did.”

He discovered that Ms Rosmah had bribed $42 million from a solar company, Jepak Holdings, which was seeking approval of a $279 million contract to power the solar plants. rural schools.

Rosmah’s $42 million payment is a 15% commission to secure project approval. She received two cash deliveries totaling about $1.5 million.

A former assistant to Ms. Rosmah testified that he solicited bribes from the company on her behalf. A company official testified that he put cash in his pocket and brought it to her residence.

Some government officials questioned the company’s ability to carry out the project, but Mr Najib directed them to skip the usual formalities and negotiate contracts, according to the court.

Taking her stance last week, Ms Rosmah denied the allegations and suggested she had been charged. But the judge convicted her of one count of bribery and two counts of accepting bribes. He sentenced her to 10 years on each count, with sentences applied concurrently.

She still faces 17 charges of money laundering and tax evasion.

When she was sentenced, she cried and begged for leniency. She said that she did not influence her husband or never took money meant for the poor. And like Mr. Najib, she sees herself as someone who is wrongly entangled in the legal system. “I was a victim of all of this,” she said. “You did that to my husband and you want my family to suffer.”



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