KUALA LUMPUR: Former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak is expected this week to face more charges linked to the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) scandal.
The New Straits Times has learnt from those with knowledge of the ongoing investigation that he is expected to answer at least four more charges, this time on 1MDB’s dealings with International Petroleum Investment Co (IPIC).
It is understood that prosecutors would hold Najib liable for his role in last year’s debt settlement between 1MDB and the Abu Dhabi wealth fund.
Najib was chairman of 1MDB’s board of advisers until it was dissolved in May 2016, when the Finance Ministry took over its remaining assets.
He is expected to face charges related to criminal breach of trust.
Sources said Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) investigators had, in the course of its probe, looked into how the former administration had settled a debt using taxpayers’ money, and who authorised the payment — allegedly “without even the approval of the cabinet”.
The settlement was triggered by 1MDB’s default on a bond payment due in 2016, which was guaranteed by IPIC in 2012 for the acquisition of two power plants. This caused the latter to refer the dispute to the London Court of Arbitration.
The 1MDB management claimed that it had paid IPIC’s British Virgin Islands-registered subsidiary, Aabar Investment, but Aabar said it never received the money as its subsidiary, which also had the same name, was based in Abu Dhabi.
It was during the time, while the dispute was still unresolved, that a settlement was reached last year by the Finance Ministry, a portfolio that Najib helmed as the minister, to pay US$1.2 billion (RM5.04 billion) to IPIC over a US$6.5 billion claim made by the latter.
During its investigation into the 1MDB-IPIC case, MACC had summoned Najib to its headquarters in Putrajaya twice, with the first on Oct 16, where he was quizzed for six hours, and again, two days later.
It is understood that it is now up to the Attorney-General's Chambers to file charges against Najib.
If he is charged over this alleged offence, the number of charges he faces will inch closer to 40.
As it is, he has been slapped with 32 charges, mostly linked to funds from 1MDB, which he founded.
Najib — who reacted to the recent charges by saying: “...it will be a chance for me to clear my name, that I am not a thief” — had pleaded not guilty to all of them, including money laundering and abuse of power.