An almost unbelievable story of misfeasance has come from our near neighbour, Malaysia. In the distant past it was ruled by a testy prime minister who frequently clashed with his Australian counterpart. The exchanges between Dr Mahathir and Paul Keating were legendary.
Dr Mahathir eventually retired and in 2009 Najib Razak came to power as the prime minister heading the UNMO party. He instituted reforms and one of these was the creation of a Malaysian National Futures fund titled IMDR, which accumulated billions of Malaysian ringgits. There was consternation when evidence emerged of a computer fraud and billions of ringgits went missing.
Under Razak's rule as prime minister the investigation seemed to go in concentric circles that never reached a conclusion, and politics in Malaysia sharpened when the now extremely aged Dr Mahathir emerged from retirement and challenged Razak at the polls. He swept back into office in a landslide, and now that investigation into the missing money took new impetus.
It was discovered that more than a billion in US Dollar value had found its way into former prime minister Razak's personal bank account. He tried to account for this by claiming the money was a personal loan from the Saudi Royal family. Najib Razak and his wife were arrested and prevented from leaving Malaysia while an indepth investigation uncovered more of the story.
It uncovered a treasure trove of high value consumer goods stashed away in Razak's former home. It was like something from the tale of the Arabian Nights and consisted of rings, brooches, tiaras, watches and necklaces which the jewellery trade valued as worth more than $ 273 million. Most of this had been obtained by internet purchases.
The former prime minister went to trial and now that court has delivered its verdict,. He was charged with abuse of power, three charges of breach of trust and three money laundering charges. Razak was found guilty on all seven counts and the High Court judge delivering that verdict took two hours to deliver his finding.
Razak still claims to be innocent and will lodge an appeal. He is now claiming the fraud is the work of a shonky financial adviser, who has left the country and can not be traced. The trial has yet to proceed to sentencing and that may cause a few problems because the political balance in the country has again changed.
Razak's political party - UNMO - is again back in power as part of an alliance that has Muhyiddin Yassin occupying the post of prime minister. It will be interesting to see how this affects whatever sentence is handed down to the former head of the UNMO party.
What is peculiar is that this crime happened in a democratic regime. Malaysians go to the polls to elect their government and grand theft is usually the preserve of dictators. In this instance it seems that a legally elected prime minister chose to use the country's Future Fund as his personal piggy bank.
No comments:
Post a Comment