A Malaysian court has sentenced former prime minister Najib Razak to fifteen years in prison for abuse of power and money laundering in the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) corruption scandal.
The son of one of Malaysia’s founding fathers, the 72-year-old former prime minister was tried on four counts of abuse of power, linked to a 471 million euro bribe from sovereign wealth fund 1MDB, as well as 21 counts of money laundering.
Malaysian and US investigators say at least $4.5 billion was stolen from 1MDB, a sovereign wealth fund that Najib set up in 2009 while he was in power. More than $1 billion was allegedly credited to accounts linked to the former prime minister, who has repeatedly denied the charge.
He denied all the charges but was not convinced
Najib Razak has been charged with four counts of corruption and 21 counts of money laundering for receiving illegal transfers of more than 2.3 billion ringgit ($569.45 million) from 1MDB. He had consistently denied any wrongdoing.
“The defendant’s contention that the charges against him were a witch-hunt and politically motivated were belied by the undisputed evidence against him, which showed that the defendant abused his powerful position at 1MDB, coupled with the extensive powers vested in him,” the judge said.
