How Najib Spent Parts Of His Over USD1Billion Donation On Luxury Items And 2013 Elections
USD15 million for clothes, jewelry and a car. Made more than 500 payments from his accounts, the bulk of them to political players.
By Sadho Ram — 01 Apr 2016, 03:23 AM
We know how Prime Miniter Najib Razak has repeatedly and vigorously denied any wrongdoing on his part, including that none of the money went toward personal expenses since the first time it was alleged that USD681 million from 1MDB was transferred to his personal accounts
However, all those claims and denials now seem like a lie as Malaysian investigation documents, viewed by The Wall Street Journal, for the first time show how some of the funds in Najib's accounts were used for personal expenses
As the above infographic shows, the disclosures not only poke holes in the claims Najib and others in UMNO have made in his defense, they also reveal how he used the funds to operate a large political machine during the GE13.
Below is a gist of how, as per WSJ, Najib used the money:
1. On 22 December 2014, Najib's credit card was charged USD130,625 to Chanel in Honolulu.
That credit card was paid from one of the several personal bank accounts owned by Najib that received hundreds of millions of dollars diverted from 1MDB.
That particular account had been credited with USD9 million a few months earlier by SRC International, the former unit of 1MDB that is now part of the finance ministry. SRC International transferred a further USD9 million to the same account via 1MDB’s corporate social responsibility arm. The money arrived the day after Christmas in 2014.
2. Between 2011 and 2014, Najib transferred over USD14 million to Jakel Trading Bhd., a Malaysian luxury clothing retailer, which was one of the most regular recipients of funds from Najib's personal accounts.
3. On 28 June 2011, USD56,000 was paid at Signature Exotic Cars, a car dealership in KL.
4. On 4 July 2014, a transfer of almost USD70,000 went to Najib's son, Nor Ashman Najib.
5. In August 2014, Najib’s credit card also incurred charges of USD854,186 at an Italian branch of De Grisogono, a Swiss-owned jewelry store.
6. Najib made more than 500 payments from his accounts, the bulk of them to political players. Tens of millions of dollars of such payments occurred ahead of the May 2013 elections.
7. The payments from Najib's personal accounts included nearly USD7 million to the private account of his brother, Nazir Razak, who is the chairman of CIMB Group Holdings Bhd.
8. Some USD44 million from Najib's accounts was recorded as going to a company called Solar Shine Bhd. The firm was used by UMNO to distribute small handouts like food and stationery to voters around elections.
In all, over USD1 billion entered 5 accounts belonging to Najib at AmBank between 2011 and 2015. You can read the entire WSJ report here.
