SEARCH FOR RICHES Malaysian police load confiscated items in a truck in Kuala Lumpur on Friday in connection with the corruption and money-laundering investigation of former Prime Minister Najib Razak. AFP
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia—Malaysian police confiscated 284 designer handbags and 72 suitcases containing cash, jewelry and other valuables on Friday as part of a corruption and money-laundering investigation of former Prime Minister Najib Razak.
Commercial crime chief Amar Singh said the valuables were seized in a search that began late Thursday at upscale apartments linked to Najib in Kuala Lumpur.
Singh said the seizure was part of investigations into a corruption scandal at the 1MDB state fund, which is also being probed by the United States and other countries.
US investigators say Najib’s associates stole and laundered $4.5 billion from the fund, some of which landed in Najib’s bank account, and that $23 million was used to buy a pink diamond necklace for his wife.
Najib, whose coalition was ousted in a stunning election defeat last week, denies any wrongdoing.
Bags, watches, jewelry
Television networks showed police carting away orange boxes containing handbags and luggage of various sizes from the condominium. Each orange box has a label and a picture of the bag.
The labels on some of the boxes seen by the Associated Press (AP) describe the bags as a “navy blue crocodile skin with diamond,” a “blue with diamonte” crocodile skin Hermes and a gray crocodile skin Hermes.
All appeared to be new and were bought abroad, including in Paris and Switzerland in 2013 and 2015.
Singh said the seizure included Birkin Hermes bags, cash in various currencies, watches and a “big amount” of jewelry.
Najib’s wife, Rosmah Mansor, is known in Malaysia for her love for Birkin bags, which luxury publications say cost from $12,000 to more than $200,000.
Officers removed Hermes, Birkin and Louis Vuitton bags as part of a trove whose value they said they could not yet estimate because of their sheer volume.
Singh declined to say who owned the apartments. He said the “search was conducted in relevance to our 1MDB investigations.”
Police conducted simultaneous raids at several other locations, including Najib’s family house, his former office as prime minister and an official residence.
Documents related to 1MDB were taken from the office and police are still trying to crack open a safe in Najib’s house, he said.
He declined to say if the haul would lead to an indictment for Najib. The search for evidence continues, he said.
Added peril
The discovery adds significantly to the peril faced by Najib, who just last week had seemed to be cruising toward an election victory before a stunning upset.
Police launched extensive searches of Najib’s home and several other sites starting late Wednesday, making good on a pledge by the new government headed by 92-year-old Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad to investigate Najib.
“I can’t give an estimated value of the items,” Singh told reporters at the upscale Kuala Lumpur condo complex where the raids were carried out.
“We have sealed the bags but we know they contain money and we know they contain jewelry.”
He said 72 of the bags were filled with large amounts of “various currencies, including Malaysian ringgit, US dollars, watches and jewelry.”
“The amount of jewelry is rather big,” he said.
Footage captured by local media showed cardboard boxes and suitcases, sealed in plastic wrapping, being loaded into a black police truck. It took five trucks to remove all of the seized items, reports said.
Mahathir vows ‘no deal’
Mahathir, who led an opposition alliance to victory in the May 9 polls that ended the 60-year rule of Najib’s coalition, has reopened the probe into 1MDB.
Mahathir has said an initial investigation showed the scale of wrongdoing by Najib’s administration was more serious than thought.
He has said that arrests will be made when there is evidence, and there would be “no deal” with the 64-year-old Najib.
Mahathir was premier for 22 years until 2003 but made a political comeback amid anger over the 1MDB scandal.
Police spent 20 hours beginning late Wednesday searching Najib’s house, and his lawyer said items such as handbags and clothing were taken away.
The handbags discovery will add to public scorn for Najib’s wife, who has long been reviled by Malaysians for her perceived haughty demeanor and reported vast collection of designer bags, clothing and jewelry collected on jet-set overseas shopping trips.
Her reputation contributed to voter perceptions of rot in a ruling establishment that had lost touch with economically struggling and middle-class Malaysians.
Barred from leaving
Several police cars arrived at Najib’s house Friday morning, fueling speculation his arrest may be imminent. Najib and his wife have been barred from traveling overseas.
Mahathir has said the government will seek to retrieve billions of dollars laundered from 1MDB to repay government debts that have piled up over the years.
The government has also told the current attorney general, who cleared Najib of wrongdoing in 2016, to go on leave, and has relieved the country’s treasury chief, who is also the 1MDB chair.
The government has set up a five-member committee, including a former attorney general and an adviser to Indonesia’s Financial Services Authority, to handle the 1MDB case.
The police actions have fueled speculation in Malaysia that Najib would soon be taken into custody, but so far there has been no indication that his arrest was imminent.
Anwar Ibrahim, the former opposition leader who was jailed under Najib but freed on Wednesday, indicated this week that they expected charges to be filed against Najib soon. —REPORTS FROM AP AND AFP