Former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak was arrested last week and charged for criminal breach of trust and abuse of power linked to the multibillion-dollar 1MDB scandal. But he did not go to jail yet for paying a bail of RM1 million.
The payment of the bail was allowed to be made in two instalments. The first payment of RM500,000 has been paid by two of his children by the day he was charged on Wednesday (Jul 4), and the remainder was settled on yesterday (Jul 9).
This bail second payment was handed RM489,166 from the Najib Solidarity Fund by Najib Razak Solidarity Secretariat. Mohd Razlan Mohamad Rafii, spokesman for the Solidariti Bersama Datuk Najib (Solidarity with Datuk Najib) group said earlier that a total of donation had been collected from the public to settle the bail amount. He said he hoped the donations would bring financial and moral support to Najib.
"We have about RM402,000 in our account at the moment and I also have about RM88,000 cash which we will hand over to him," he said.
The former President of the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) was charged with three counts of criminal breach of trust and one count of using his position for gratification in connection with funds from SRC International, a unit formerly under 1MDB.
For the first count, Najib was accused of committing criminal breach of trust involving a sum of RM27 million (US$6.7 million) while he was a prime minister, finance minister and advisor emeritus for SRC International. He was accused of committing the offence at AmIslamic Bank at Jalan Raja Chulan between Dec 24 and Dec 29, 2014.
For the second count, he was accused of committing criminal breach of trust over SRC International funds totalling RM5 million while he was a prime minister and finance minister. The offence was also committed at AmIslamic Bank, between Dec 24 and Dec 29, 2014.
For the third count, Najib was accused of committing criminal breach of trust involving RM10 million between Feb 10 and Mar 2, 2015, at the same place.
For the fourth count, Najib was accused of using his position as a prime minister and finance minister of Malaysia to commit bribery involving RM42 million when he was involved in a decision on behalf of the government to provide government guarantees for loans from the Retirement Fund Incorporated Fund to SRC International amounting to RM4 billion. He was accused of committing the offence at the prime minister's office in Putrajaya from Aug 17, 2011, to Feb 8, 2012.
Each of the four charges over alleged wrongdoing carries a maximum 20-year jail sentence. Yet that may not be the full extent of his legal woes. He also faces a minimum fine of five times the value of the bribe or RM10,000, whichever is higher.
With prosecutors in the US – one of six countries probing the 1MDB affair – claiming some US$700 million of US$4.5 billion plundered from 1MDB made its way to Najib’s personal accounts, the current charges – involving just RM42 million (US$10 million) of allegedly misappropriated funds – could be just the beginning.
As CNN reported, according to an investigation by the US Justice Department, Malaysian financier Jho Low used misappropriated funds from 1MDB to buy 27 different 18-carat gold necklaces and bracelets for the wife of someone listed in the complaint as "Malaysia Official 1." That official has been widely reported to be Najib.
The US is currently seeking to recover around $540 million misappropriated from the 1MDB fund, with more than $1.7 billion of assets subject to forfeiture under the Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative.
Some of those assets include profits from the Martin Scorsese film "The Wolf of Wall Street," which was financed by a company associated with 1MDB, as well as properties linked to Low and others.
In an interview with The New York Times, the current Malaysia Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad described Najib as a “kleptocrat”. “It is obvious that he has stolen money. We have enough evidence. It’s not a question of seeking revenge, no. It is just the application of the rule of law,” Mahathir said as quoted by The New York Times.
The day after the election, Mahathir's son Mukhriz said that the new administration would take action against him, while the prime minister-in-waiting, Anwar Ibrahim, said: "it will be very difficult for him to escape prison".
Sources: The Star/Asia News Network, The New York Times, CNN, Chanel News Asia