KUALA LUMPUR: Former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak is expected to face multiple charges for alleged abuse of power involving the RM2.6 billion found in his personal account.
Najib, who has maintained that the money was a “donation”, was taken into the custody of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) yesterday at 4.13pm when he presented himself at its headquarters.
MACC, in a statement, said Najib would be charged under Section 23(1) of the MACC Act 2009, following the Attorney-General Chamber’s nod for the case to be taken to court.
Najib is scheduled to be taken to the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court at 3pm today.
“MACC will also cooperate with the police to have his (Najib’s) statement recorded to facilitate police investigations under the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001 (AMLATFPUAA),” the statement said.
Early last month, Najib was charged with three counts of money laundering under AMLATFPUAA, and had four other earlier charges amended with regard to the RM42 million from SRC International found in his personal account.
The three deposits, amounting to RM27 million, RM5 million and RM10 million, were found to have been wired into his AmIslamic Bank account between Dec 26, 2014, and Feb 10, 2015.
In the case of the contentious RM2.6 billion, Najib had recently gone on social media to claim that the late King Abdullah Abdulaziz Al-Saud of Saudi Arabia, who died in 2015, had given him the money since 2011.
He had furnished documents of transactions relevant to the sum in question.
Investigators, however, in drawing up this case against Najib, did not buy into this line of defence.
It is understood that prosecutors could level no fewer than four charges of abuse of power against him.
They had zoomed in on “dubious” transactions in his personal accounts between 2011 and 2014, which total about RM2.6 billion.
On Saturday, the New Straits Times reported that investigators, in preparing to charge Najib on the RM2.6 billion case, were dealing with a 250-page stack of facts of the case.
It is learnt that the prosecution will have on its side about 130 witnesses, including representatives of banks, the Treasury, as well as officers from 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB), which investigators believe was the source of the funds.
News of Najib’s impending second court appearance to face criminal charges comes three days after NST’s frontpage report on Monday, which quoted sources as saying that his wife, Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, would be levelled with charges of money laundering, including one that involved the purchase of anti-ageing products worth just over RM1 million.
Last night would be the second time Najib spent the night at the MACC lock-up.
The first, was after he was picked up in July in relation to the SRC International case.