KUALA LUMPUR: Jailed former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak will hear a verdict on Friday in the biggest trial he faces over the multibillion-dollar 1MDB scandal, a ruling that could risk deepening tensions within the administration of current premier Anwar Ibrahim.
Investigators have said about $4.5 billion was allegedly stolen from 1Malaysia Development Berhad, a state fund co-founded by Najib in 2009, and that more than $1 billion allegedly made its way into his personal bank accounts. Najib, 72, last year apologized for mishandling the scandal while in office but he has consistently denied wrongdoing, saying he was misled by 1MDB officials and a fugitive financier, Jho Low, on the source of the funds. In 2020, Najib was convicted of graft and money laundering for illegally receiving funds from a 1MDB unit and began a 12-year prison sentence two years later after losing all his appeals. That sentence was later halved by a pardons board chaired by Malaysia’s king, with Najib due for release in 2028.
A Malaysian high court will decide on Friday whether to convict Najib of four more charges of corruption and 21 counts of money laundering involving the illegal transfer of about 2.2 billion ringgit ($539 million) from 1MDB.
