Malaysia | Wife of ex-PM questioned, new graft scandal unfolds

Rosmah Mansor (center), wife of Najib Razak, arrives at the Anti-Corruption Agency for questioning yesterday

Anti–corruption investigators questioned the wife of former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak yesterday about alleged theft and money-laundering involving the 1MDB state investment fund, as officials announced a probe into other suspicious multibillion-dollar transactions under Najib’s leadership.

The prosecution of Najib and his wife Rosmah Mansor over the 1MDB scandal, which helped lead to Najib’s stunning ouster in May 9 national elections, could be sped up with the government’s appointment of a new attorney-general.

The appointee, distinguished lawyer Tommy Thomas, is the first person from outside Malaysia’s Malay majority to hold the powerful position in more than half a century. His Najib- appointed predecessor had stifled investigations.

Rosmah, accompanied by her daughter and son-in-law, didn’t speak to reporters as she was escorted into the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission office, where she was questioned for three hours. She was summoned nearly two weeks after Najib was questioned twice by the agency.

In another blow to the former first couple, their lawyer M. Puravelan told The Associated Press that he is no longer representing Rosmah and Najib. He said another prominent lawyer Yusof Zainal Abideen had also withdrawn. He said they didn’t quit because of disagreement over legal strategies for the 1MDB case but declined to elaborate.

Najib set up the 1MDB fund when he took power in 2009 but it accumulated billions in debts. U.S. investigators say Najib’s associates stole and laundered USD4.5 billion from the fund from 2009 to 2014, some of which landed in Najib’s bank account. They say $27.3 million was used to buy a rare diamond necklace for Rosmah.

New Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad reopened investigations into 1MDB that were suppressed under Najib’s rule. He has also banned the couple from leaving the country. The country’s new anti-graft chief has said Najib, who denies any wrongdoing, could soon face criminal charges.

Yesterday, officials announced they had alerted the anti-graft commission to at least $2 billion worth of government- related transactions that are “highly suspicious.”

The Finance Ministry said in a statement that a state company overseeing gas and petroleum pipeline projects that began in April last year had paid nearly all the $2 billion- plus project funds to the Chinese developer despite less than 15 percent of the pipeline work being completed as of March.

The state company was set up by the “same people” who established a 1MDB subsidiary that Malaysian investigators allege was used to funnel state funds to Najib’s bank account, according to the statement. It said the state company’s president is also a director of a company tied to Low Taek Jho, a Najib associate who U.S. investigators allege masterminded the looting of 1MDB.

The statement said the contracts were negotiated by the prime minister’s department without involving treasury officials who would normally vet such transactions. The projects, which relied largely on Chinese loans backed by the Malaysian government’s repayment guarantee, proceeded despite numerous “red flags” raised in other parts of the government, it said. AP