Malaysian police said on Wednesday that during the investigation on the scandal at state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), they have recovered up to RM1.1 billion cash and other luxury items from the place, which has links to former Prime Minister Najib Razak. In a press, conference police showed the pictures of those seized items.
Amar Singh, the Chief of the Commercial Crime Investigation Department (CCID) said that in May 2018, police searched in six different premises linked to Najib and seized items that valued between RM900 million and RM 1.1 billion. Reports stated that when Najib was in power, his monthly salary was RM 22,827 per month.
In addition, Singh also mentioned that a total of RM 116 million cash and jewellery worth around RM442 million was found. There 26 different currencies officers found during the raid. It took three days for the police, 22 Bank Negara officers and six counting machines to finish the counting of those seized cash.
While explaining the raid, Singh said that they found those illegal belongings from the official resident of Malaysian PM as well as from Putrajaya office, three units in Pavilion, where police found nothing but bags full with valuable items and Najib's Kuala Lumpur house.
Among those seized jewellery, there were 2,800 pairs of earrings, 2,200 rings, 2,100 bangles, 1,600 brooches, 1,400 necklaces and 14 tiaras. Police also found a yellow-gold necklace of diamond, which worth RM6.4 million. A total of 567 handbags were seized and 272 handbags were from Hermès. They also found custom Bijan bag. During investigation police also found more than 72 brands, including Chanel, Prada, Judith Leiber and Kwanpen.
Later, Sing revealed that 423 branded watches, including Rolex and Chopard, were also recovered from those six locations. The total value of these watches would be RM78 million. A Rolex Paul Newman Daytona, which has a value of RM3.5 million, three Chopard watches, which worth RM2.5 million and a Richard Mille timepiece, which worth RM1.6 million was seized.
In the press meet, Singh also confirmed that apart from all these items, police found 234 sunglasses from 34 brands worth RM374,000. But, he also mentioned that officers are trying to know whether some of these seized items were gifts or not and if yes, then who gifted these.
During this intensive investigation, Najib gave an interview, where he told that most of these luxury items were gifts from his wife and daughter.
Singh said that even though the investigation was conducted from May 21 to June 25, the reason behind such a long time span is the number of items seized items. He mentioned that those illegal items were so big that the officials wanted to ensure the integrity it. During the press conference, he also mentioned that it was the biggest result of a raid in the history of Malaysia.
" Sources or contributors to the stolen goods are still known and PDRM will continue to call the witnesses involved to help launch the process of running the investigation," said Singh.
The seized items and cash are now in Bank Negara and police will call Najib and Rosmah soon for further interrogation. The new PM Mahathir, 92, has vowed that the former leader of the county will be charged for his wrongdoings.
