Former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak (Source: VNA) Kuala Lumpur (VNA) – The Sessions Court of Kuala Lumpur decided on January 4 that a joint trial will be held for both former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak and former 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) CEO Arul Kanda Kandasamy for allegedly tampering a 1MDB audit report.
The decision was made following the prosecution's request. The trial is forecast to take place in early March.
Najib was accused of using his position as prime minister to order the then Auditor-General to remove certain matters from the report before submitting it to the National Audit Department.
Meanwhile, Arul Kanda allegedly abetted Najib in using the latter’s position as then prime minister to order the amendment to the report.
On November 25, Auditor-General Tan Sri Madinah Mohamad revealed that the final audit report on 1MDB had been tampered with and the matters dropped from the report were on the presence of fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho, also known as Jho Low, at a 1MDB board meeting.
Jho Low, who used to do consulting work for the 1MDB, was accused of money laundering relating to the fund by both Malaysia and the US.
Najib faced with a total of 38 charges of corruption, money laundering and breach of trust since losing power, most of them related to the 1MDB.
Najib founded the 1MDB investment fund in 2009, supposedly to serve Malaysia’s development through global partnerships and foreign direct investment.
However, it became the centre of a money laundering scandal, allegedly causing losses of up to 3.7 billion USD and leading to probes into the financial markets in several countries such as the US, Switzerland, Singapore, Malaysia and China.
After assuming power, Malaysian PM Mahathir Mohamad declared to give priority to addressing corruption and taking back losses of the fund. The Malaysian government has set up a task force to look into the scandal with help from the US, Switzerland, Singapore, Canada and other countries.-VNA
VNA
