1MDB verdict: Najib to serve 15 years behind bars [WATCH]

By NST in December 27, 2025 – Reading time 3 minute

PUTRAJAYA: Datuk Seri Najib Razak was sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment and fined RM13.4 billion for abuse of power and money laundering involving 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) funds.

High Court judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah ordered the jail term to run consecutively to his current jail term in Kajang Prison for misappropriating RM42 million from SRC International Sdn Bhd.

Najib will face an additional 40 years in prison if he fails to settle the fine.

The judge also ordered the sentence to take effect from today, as there was no application by defence counsel Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah for a stay of execution, with liberty to apply.

The court ordered the accused to pay RM2 billion in default two years and six months imprisonment for the money laundering charges.

Najib was found guily on four charges of abuse of power and 21 counts of money laundering related to RM2.3 billion misappropriated from 1MDB.

Sequerah handed down the sentence after ruling that the former prime minister had failed to raise reasonable doubt against the prosecution’s case.

The decision marks a second setback for the former prime minister within a week, after his application for a review of house arrest was dismissed on Monday.

Earlier, Sequerah in his judgment dismissed Najib’s argument that he had been misled by 1MDB’s management.

Sequerah ruled that Najib was fully aware of the company’s dealings.

He said Najib was not a country bumpkin, noting that he was at the time the prime minister, finance minister and chairman of 1MDB’s board of advisers.

The court found that Najib was aware of the dealings when he rejected advice from former 1MDB chief executive Datuk Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi and others regarding transactions involving rogue financier Low Taek Jho, or Jho Low.

Sequerah also highlighted the relationship between Najib and Jho Low, with photographs showing them holidaying together.

He said the images, together with other evidence produced during the trial, supported the prosecution’s case.

The court also accepted the testimonies of prosecution witnesses despite the absence of key figures, namely Low, his proxy Terence Geh, and Najib’s former aide Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil, all of whom remain fugitives.

Sequerah said former 1MDB chief executive officers Datuk Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi and Mohd Hazem Abdul Rahman, as well as former chief financial officer Azmi Tahir, had testified that Low acted as Najib’s unofficial voice and adviser on company matters.

He added that there was overwhelming evidence that Low, better known as Jho Low, acted as a proxy for Najib.

This was evident, he said, as all of Low’s instructions were treated by 1MDB’s top management as coming directly from the former prime minister.

Prosecution witnesses also testified that Low’s emails, talking points and directives were integral to 1MDB’s operational workflow.

Meanwhile, the four Arab donation letters relied upon by Najib were found to be “forgeries.”

Sequerah said the letters were never produced in their original form before the court and were an attempt by the accused to legitimise his claim that the funds he received were donations.

He also noted that no verification had been carried out by the former prime minister to ensure that the funds originated from the family of the late King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia.

He added that tracing of the funds showed they were channelled through third-party private companies — Vista Equity, Blackstone and Tanore — entities owned by fugitive financier Eric Tan.

In his verdict, Sequerah also found it unusual that no written acknowledgement had been sent to the Arab monarch’s family to express gratitude for the alleged donation.

“The donation narrative was also not declared in the Cabinet minutes,” he said.

Source link