Kuala Lumpur - Searches at the home of former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak and other locations were carried out by a special police team set up to investigate the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) corruption scandal. The search aims to find evidence related to 1MDB.
A source who understands the search said to Malaysian local media Malay Mail on Thursday (17/05/2018), the search was related to an investigation of the 1MDB corruption scandal, which dragged Najib.
1MDB is a state investment company established by Najib since 2009, with the aim of improving development in Malaysia. In practice, 1MDB lost millions of US dollars allegedly perverted.
The police team that boarded 10 cars went to Najib's house at Taman Duta on Wednesday (16/5) evening local time. Other police teams searched simultaneously at several other locations, including two luxury condominium units in the Pavilion Residences complex linked to the Najib family.
"Investigators are familiar with the previous investigation to investigate 1MDB," the source told Malay Mail. "They took a number of documents from the units," he added.
This source's description is different from that of Najib's lawyer, Harpal Singh Grewal, who calls only personal items such as women's bags, clothing and gifts that police confiscate. "No documents are brought, nothing is important, only personal items including bags," he said.
In a separate statement to Malaysian local media, The Star, Director of the Department of Investigation of the Commercial Crime of the Malaysian Police, Commissioner Amar Singh, was reluctant to reveal the purpose of the search. He only confirmed the search was made in five Najib related locations.
It is known that the search was conducted after Najib and his wife, Rosmah Mansor, were on the Immigration Department blacklist list, for people who were prevented abroad. Najib who was dragged into the mega corruption scandal 1MDB has repeatedly denied having committed a violation of the law.
