(May 18): Malaysian police seized personal items from former leader Najib Razak’s house in an overnight search, his lawyer said, as Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad’s week-old government seeks evidence into wrongdoing at state fund 1MDB.
Authorities took several boxes of “negligible” items like handbags, clothes and personal belongings as evidence but not any documents, Harpal Singh Grewal, Najib’s lawyer, said by phone. Police mentioned possible money laundering offenses but didn’t mention 1MDB, he said.
“They searched the whole house, possibly looking for documents and things like that, but there was nothing there to be honest,” Grewal said. He said the police took items “to show they did something.”
Grewal said there’s “no indication at all” that Najib would be arrested. “We just wait and see,” he added.
On Friday, Commercial Crime Investigation Department Director Amar Singh Ishar Singh said documents seized from Najib’s former office are related to the ongoing investigation into 1MDB.
Police also searched two condominium units in Kuala Lumpur as part of the 1MDB probe, seizing 284 boxes containing handbags, and 72 luggage bags containing valuable items such as cash and jewellery.
Mahathir said he didn’t order the search and had no information, adding that he has tasked the police to investigate all criminal cases regardless of who is implicated.
“If there is a case, we will take action,” Mahathir said at a press briefing on Thursday. “My instruction was very clear, not to torture people but to treat them decently.”
The Malaysian government is considering investigating former leader Najib Razak for abuse of power, as it intensifies efforts to seek evidence on wrongdoing at scandal-plagued state fund 1MDB just days after taking office.
The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission laid out in recent days a comprehensive list detailing the potential scope of investigations into 1MDB, according to people who have seen the document. Examples of potential abuse of power by Najib that the agency identified include witness suppression and the blocking of a central bank criminal case.
Najib had indicated at the outset that he was "prepared and willing to extend his fullest cooperation to the relevant authorities," his lawyer Grewal said in a statement Thursday in response to a raid on his client’s home. A spokesman for Najib referred Bloomberg News to this statement when asked for comment. A spokesperson for the anti-graft agency couldn’t immediately comment when reached on Friday.
The move to lay out the scope of a renewed probe underscores how fast Mahathir’s government is moving to revive an investigation into 1MDB, which was set up in 2009 under Najib’s watch to support local infrastructure projects.
Since the 92-year-old defeated Najib’s government in a shock election victory last week, he has barred his former protege from leaving the country; and police have searched Najib’s home and seized documents from his former office this week.
Najib’s shock election loss last week to Mahathir saw the Barisan Nasional coalition evicted from power after six decades, and he was subsequently barred from leaving the country. It comes as Mahathir accelerates efforts to revive a probe into 1MDB, which was set up in 2009 under Najib’s watch to support domestic infrastructure projects.
The premier said Wednesday he will seek to recover funds diverted from 1MDB by reaching out to authorities in Switzerland, the US, Singapore and other jurisdictions. A parliamentary committee in 2016 identified at least US$4.2 billion in irregular transactions by the fund.
Mahathir is appointing Mohd Shukri Abdull to helm the anti-corruption commission, after the former chief, Dzulkifli Ahmad, resigned last week. Shukri was deputy chief commissioner at the agency until he retired in 2016.
“The main issue is of corruption, particularly 1MDB as well as the money that was embezzled by the previous government,” Mahathir told reporters on Wednesday. “I have been briefed by the police and the auditor general and it is very clear that there were more wrongdoings committed than what was known by the public and me.”
Mahathir, who was Najib’s long-term ally and who is back in power after a prior stint as premier from 1981 to 2003, accused him on the campaign trail of being a “thief” over alleged graft at 1MDB. Najib has denied any wrongdoing and was cleared by the attorney general at the time, while the fund has repeatedly denied any misconduct.
The 1MDB scandal spawned global probes as investigators tracked a money trail stretching from Switzerland to Singapore and the US. The Department of Justice alleges that US$3.5 billion from the fund went missing.
Swiss prosecutors said Tuesday they wanted to start talks with investigators in Malaysia as soon as possible to better coordinate various criminal probes into the sprawling case.
Singapore authorities also weighed in. The city-state has cooperated extensively with their Malaysian counterparts on past requests on the matter and is ready to extend further assistance, the Monetary Authority of Singapore and the Commercial Affairs Department said in an email early Wednesday.
