This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on July 4, 2018

KUALA LUMPUR: At long last, widespread calls to act against former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak over his alleged involvement in the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) scandal that has sparked probes in seven countries and the closure of a Singapore bank, have come to fruition.

The 65-year-old former 1MDB chairman, who has been maintaining his innocence — even saying that he had no control and information over the operations and movement of funds from the debt-ridden state investment entity to his personal account — is expected to be charged today after spending the night in the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s (MACC) lock-up in Putrajaya.

Bernama reported that Najib is expected to face more than 10 counts of criminal breach of trust over the former 1MDB subsidiary SRC International Sdn Bhd, where it was alleged that a sum of RM42 million went into his private accounts.The report said Najib will be brought before Sessions Court Judge Zainal Abidin Kamaruddin and then High Court judge Azman Abdullah. Both are senior judges in their respective criminal courts.

Newly appointed Attorney-General (AG) Tommy Thomas will lead a large team of prosecutors, according to Malaysiakini.

The 1MDB Special Investigation Taskforce said in a statement that Najib was picked up from his house in Jalan Langgak Duta, Kuala Lumpur, at 2.35pm yesterday.

This follows a two-day grilling by the MACC on May 22 and 24 in relation to his alleged involvement in the illicit transfer of the RM42 million from SRC International to his AmBank account. SRC International, which was set up in 2011 to invest in the energy business, now reports to the finance ministry after slipping into financial woes in 2012. It is also said to have trouble servicing its debts of RM4.3 billion which came primarily from the Retirement Fund Inc (KWAP).

A MACC spokesman said “not yet” when asked if action would also be taken against Najib’s wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor. She gave her statement to the MACC on June 5.

On June 12, the MACC submitted its investigation papers on 1MDB to Thomas who was considering both civil and criminal proceedings.

News of Najib’s arrest reverberated across the social media with many lauding the authority and the new government for the action that formed a major part of Pakatan Harapan’s battle cry in the 14th general election leading to the cessation of Najib-led Barisan Nasional’s 60-year governance in Malaysia. Over the years, demands for Najib’s removal as prime minister grew stronger as news of the 1MDB scandal intensified in the face of the then BN government’s continued dismissal of Najib’s involvement while also claiming that 1MDB was solvent.

In 2015, MACC and former AG Tan Sri Mohamed Apandi Ali cleared Najib of any wrongdoing over RM2.08 billion that was found in his and SRC International’s accounts two years earlier, saying that the money was a donation from the  Saudi Arabia royalty. But in the past week and a half, as the hands of the law closed in on an impending arrest amid the detention of Najib’s aide, the former prime minister went on a publicity blitz where he pled his innocence over the allegations.

He also explained that the large stash of cash, luxury handbags and jewellery seized by the police from his six properties in the city with a valuation of RM1.1 billion were mostly gifts accumulated over the decades, and had nothing to do with 1MDB.

Earlier yesterday, Najib’s stepson Riza Aziz, chief executive officer of Red Granite Pictures Inc that produced the Hollywood blockbuster The Wolf of Wall Street, gave his statement to the MACC. He is expected to be questioned further by the anti-graft agency today.

Red Granite has reached a settlement of US$60 million with the US government following the filings of two civil forfeiture suits by the US Department of Justice (DoJ) in 2016 and 2017 to recover the traceable assets worth US$1.7 billion, money that was allegedly used from 1MDB.

At the heart of the investigation is Riza’s friend and former 1MDB special adviser Low Taek Jho, better known as Jho Low, who allegedly misappropriated the funds, amassing US$4.5 billion that was used to buy the luxury yacht Equanimity, paintings and properties.

The RM42 billion debt-laden state investment fund started in 2009 to raise the government’s revenue via investments, but instead sparked a series of investigations across seven countries following alleged cross-border money transactions siphoned from 1MDB.

Jho Low’s “special connection” with Middle Eastern royalties and the set-up of Petro Saudi International Ltd to supposedly bring in oil-related investments, impressed Najib as it was of value to Malaysia but “what he (Jho Low) did with them (Saudi royalties) and all that, that’s beyond my knowledge”, he had said during one of the recent interviews.

Penang-born Jho Low, 37, along with SRC International managing director Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil Nik Othman, and those linked to 1MDB financial irregularities — Tan Kim Loong, Tan Keng Chee, Geh Choh Heng and Loo Ai Swan, who are being sought by the MACC to help in investigations, are still at large.

The 1MDB task force says it has frozen 408 bank accounts of individuals, political parties and non-governmental organisations worth RM1.1 billion, believed to have  been received  from 1MDB.

The task force set up by 1MDB Committee under the Council of Eminent Persons, is focusing on asset recovery, bringing back the money and asset revenue related to 1MDB, and ensuring criminal action is taken against those involved in the case by using the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Act, Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities (AMLA) Act 2001 and the Penal Code.

It is made up of former AG Tan Sri Gani Patail, former MACC chief Tan Sri Abu Kassim Mohamed, newly appointed MACC chief commissioner Datuk Seri Mohd Shukri Abdull and former Special Branch deputy director Datuk Abdul Hamid Bador.

Meanwhile, the Bar Council is “shocked and troubled” that the task force reportedly carried out the arrest, seeing that it has no legal standing to do so, and that any detention can only be done by either the MACC or the pollice.

“The task force is also not in a position to decide whether or not Najib will be charged and/or when he is to be charged. It therefore begs the following questions — is the task force legally empowered to order Najib’s arrest, and to charge him?” said Bar president George Varughese.

Johor Baru Umno division chief Tan Sri Shahrir Abdul Samad, who was questioned by the MACC for some seven hours yesterday for allegedly receiving RM1 million from Najib, also expressed hope that the latter’s arrest is not a politically motivated move to bring Umno down.

Shahrir maintained he received the sum in the form of a cheque from Najib in November 2013, after he requested for political funding from the latter, who was Umno president at the time.

Shahrir said the practice of donating to political parties is legal, though he affirmed he is not aware of the original source of the fund.

The funds had been used for the party’s political activities, with details of the spending shared with the MACC today (yesterday), he added.