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| Najib Razak: Former Malaysian PM guilty on all charges in corruption trial | Najib Razak: Former Malaysian PM guilty on all charges in corruption trial |
| (32 minutes later) | |
| Former Malaysian PM Najib Razak has been found guilty of all seven charges in the first of several multi-million dollar corruption trials. | Former Malaysian PM Najib Razak has been found guilty of all seven charges in the first of several multi-million dollar corruption trials. |
| He had pleaded not guilty to the charges of criminal breach of trust, money laundering and abuse of power. | He had pleaded not guilty to the charges of criminal breach of trust, money laundering and abuse of power. |
| The case was widely seen as test of Malaysia's rule of law and anti-corruption efforts. | |
| The scandal around Malaysia's 1MDB sovereign wealth fund has uncovered a global web of fraud and corruption. | |
| Tuesday's verdicts centred on 42 million ringgit ($10m, £7.7m) transferred from the fund to the then-prime minister's private accounts. Najib was in office from 2009 to 2018. | |
| "After considering all evidence in this trial, I find that the prosecution has successfully proven its case beyond a reasonable doubt," judge Mohamad Nazlan Mohamad Ghazali told the Kuala Lumpur High Court. | |
| Najib denies all wrongdoing and says he was misled by financial advisors - in particular fugitive financier Jho Low who has been charged in both the US and Malaysia, but also maintains his innocence. | |
| The charges carry as much as 15 to 20 years in prison each. Before the verdict, he said he would appeal if found guilty. | |
| The 1 Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) fund was set up in 2009, when Najib Razak was prime minister, to boost the country's economic development. | |
| In 2015, questions were raised around its activities after it missed payments owed to banks and bondholders. | |
| Malaysian and US authorities allege that about $4.5bn was illicitly plundered from the fund and diverted into private pockets. | |
| The missing money has been linked to luxury real estate, a private jet, Van Gogh and Monet artworks - and even a Hollywood blockbuster. | |
| Last week, US bank Goldman Sachs reached a $3.9bn (£3bn) settlement with the Malaysian government for its role in the multi-billion-dollar corruption scheme. | |
| The deal resolved charges in Malaysia that the bank had misled investors when it helped raise $6.5bn for 1MDB. | |
| Najib was cleared of all wrongdoing by Malaysian authorities while he was still prime minister. | |
| Nonetheless, the allegations played a big part in his election defeat in 2018 - and the new government swiftly reopened investigations into the 1MDB case. | |
| Najib's wife, Rosmah Mansor, is facing charges of money-laundering and tax evasion, to which she has pleaded not guilty. |