Congrats Najib – Double Celebrations With New 15 Years’ Jail

Fabricated donation letters. Overwhelming evidence and witnesses. Undisputable money laundering trail. Unbelievable tales of donations from the Saudi royal family. Unmistakable bond and connection with Jho Low. Financial investigations across the globe involved at least six countries, including the United States, Singapore, and Switzerland. The 1MDB scandal was simply too massive to be swept under the carpet.

 

Christmas 2025 will be remembered as the worst year for former Prime Minister Najib Razak. On Monday (Dec 22), days before Christmas, a court rejected his bid to serve the rest of his jail sentence under house arrest. On Friday (Dec 26), less than 24 hours after Christmas, another court found him guilty on all 25 charges of misappropriation of about RM2.23 billion linked to the 1MDB scandal.

 

It certainly sparks double celebrations – Christmas 2025 and New Year 2026 – for millions of Malaysians who have waited impatiently for the past 7 years since the arrest of Mr Najib after he lost power in the historic May 2018 General Election. People will also remember two names – High Court Judge Loke Yee Ching and Justice Collin Lawrence Sequerah (who has been promoted to the Federal Court).

Jailed Najib was sentenced to 15 years’ jail on Dec 26, and a record RM11.4 billion fine, in default of which he would serve an additional 40 years in prison. Najib – prime minister from 2009 to 2018 – was convicted on 4 counts of abuse of power and 21 counts of money laundering involving RM2.2 billion misappropriated from the state investment fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB). 

 

Not only Najib was found guilty on all 25 charges by Judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah, the country’s biggest corruption trial, which first began in 2018 and ran till end of 2025, was so complex and huge that Sequerah only managed to order the sentences at about 9.15pm (Friday, Dec 26), 12 hours after he first started delivering his verdict, which itself lasted nearly five hours in total. 

 

The sentences will run concurrently, and will start after his current jail term for a separate case (SRC International) finishes. Collin sentenced Najib to 15 years’ jail for each of the abuse of power charges, and 5 years’ jail for each of the money laundering charges. Meaning if the sentences were to run consecutively, Najib would face a whopping 165 years in prison, excluding 40 more years if he fails to pay the RM11.4 billion fines.

From the beginning, Najib’s defence has been weak and stacked with laughable excuses – crowing forged donation letters, crying scammed by partner-in-crime Jho Low, accusing prosecution of witch hunting and political motivated, denying responsibility despite being the powerful prime minister and finance minister, feigning ignorance, lying about returning money to Saudi donors, and whatnot.   

 

The U.S.-DOJ investigation results say that over US$4.5 billion was misappropriated from the 1MDB fund, with some of the money used to finance Hollywood films, and buy hotels, private jet, luxury Equanimity superyacht, Picasso paintings, jewellery and real estate. More than US$700 million (hence the infamous RM2.6 billion) from the fund landed in Najib’s bank accounts.

 

That alone made Najib’s lead lawyer Shafee Abdullah unable to rebut convincingly during the entire trial that had stretched across 302 days over a period of 7 years. So, Judge Collin started the morning session by rejecting the defence’s argument that the prosecution’s case was faulty – dismissing the defence’s claims that the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) had failed to “show genuine efforts” to trace the fugitive financier Jho Low.

“There is little doubt as to the well-known public fact made available to the wider media, both nationally and internationally, that Jho Low has yet to be brought before the relevant and appropriate courts in this country and abroad, to face the demands of justice. I therefore see no reason to depart from my earlier findings that Jho Low is a person who cannot be found.” – Sequerah said.

 

Najib defence team’s half-baked strategy was to use the authorities’ inability to trace and bring back Jho Low to testify as an excuse to deny responsibility. Najib has repeatedly said he was misled by 1MDB officials and Low, who has been charged in the United States for his central role in the case. Low, whose whereabouts are unknown but is believed to be hiding in China, has denied wrongdoing.

 

But Najib’s own party – UMNO – has been part of the governments, from the previous backdoor regimes of Muhyiddin Yassin and Ismail Sabri (March 2020 – November 2022) to the current Unity Government. So, why isn’t the Malay nationalist party interested in locating and extraditing Jho Low? Because Low is of better use as a fugitive than brought back to testify against 72-year-old Najib Razak.

The High Court also ruled that Low Taek Jho, known as Jho Low, and Najib Razak had known each other based on photographs of them vacationing together. In fact, the defence “did not dispute” yacht holidays where Najib and his family were on vacation on the RM Elegance in Nice, France (in 2009), on the Golden Odyssey in Greece and Italy (in 2010), and on the Topaz Yacht in Cote D’Azure, Nice (in 2013).

 

Judge Sequerah relied on Najib’s own former special officer Wan Ahmad Wan Shihab, who testified that Jho Low had personally arranged and coordinated several of Najib’s family vacations, where his wife Rosmah Mansor and their children (Norashman Najib, Nooryana Najwa and Riza Aziz) happily enjoyed in waters off France, Greece and Italy – proving that Najib did indeed know Jho Low – despite Najib’s initial lies that he did not.

 

Wan Ahmad also confirmed during cross-examination that the Hollywood celebrity aboard the Topaz was Oscar winner Jamie Foxx and his family, together with Hollywood producer Joey McFarland, who was previously chairman of Red Granite Pictures, the studio which produced “The Wolf of Wall Street” and was co-founded by Riza Aziz, who received funding of US$248 million from money stolen in 1MDB.

“All these pieces of evidence, outlined as above and taken cumulatively, cannot be described in any other manner except that it revealed an unmistakable bond and connection between the accused and Jho Low. The evidence clearly points to the fact that this was no coincidence, but was evident of a relationship in which Jho Low operated as a proxy or agent of the accused, with regard to the running of the affairs of 1MDB,” – said Judge Sequerah. 

 

Riza Aziz, the stepson of Najib Razak, then spent US$248 million in siphoned 1MDB funds on gambling, real estate, movie memorabilia, and to fund his company Red Granite Pictures and its motion picture productions. Initially, Mr Riza – just like his stepfather – tried to lie about the source of the money, claiming it was a loan from the Saudi royal family, not 1MDB funds. But the lies didn’t stand very long.

 

In January 2025, after prosecution unveiled two audio recordings of phone conversations between Najib and the then-UAE crown prince Sheikh Mohamed Zayed Al-Nahyan in 2016, Najib finally admitted in a High Court that he had asked the United Arab Emirates’ crown prince to “fabricate” paperwork to make Riza Aziz’s dubious money looks legitimate, and not money laundered from 1MDB money.

The problem, however, was not so much about Najib’s fabrication to cover his crime. It was the “shoddy job” in document forgery that makes any first year judge rejects such tales. So, on Dec 26, Justice Sequerah rejected Najib’s claim that the RM2.3 billion was a political donation, finding that the purported Arab donation letters relied on by the defence were fabricated. 

 

This time, the judge noted that his finding was supported by testimony from former AmBank relationship manager Joanna Yu Ging Ping and former 1MDB general counsel Jasmine Loo Ai Swan. Ms Loo, who surrendered to the Malaysian police in July 2023, testified to seeing a draft of one of the donation letters on a computer screen at a hotel in Mayfair, London. Worse, she said – “The fourth letter does not have a date despite having an AmBank emblem stamp.”

 

“The court found that the letters were unverified and, at best, highly questionable,” – the judge ruled. ​Judge Collin added that Ms. Loo’s testimony cast serious doubt not only on the authenticity of the fourth letter but also on the credibility of the entire set of correspondence. But fake donation letters from Saudi have long been known even before the Friday’s judgement.

In September 2018, Najib released dubious documents which he claimed were proof that the Saudi Arabian royalty had indeed donated to him. He proudly uploaded to his Facebook page the document of a donation totalling US$100 million. To make his tale more believable, Najib also released a letter purportedly written by Saudi Prince Abdul Aziz Al-Saud dated February 1, 2011.

 

There was another letter dated March 1, 2013, issued to Najib – gifting him with another US$800 million. Both letters, hilariously, carried different signatures, despite claims they came from the same Saudi prince. The biggest joke – the contents of the letters were similar to a letter written by Eric Tan Kim Loong to Jho Low, partner-in-crime of Najib Razak.

 

The dubious and suspicious letters, amusingly, said – “In view of the friendship that we have developed over the years and your new ideas as a modern Islamic leader, I hereby grant you a sum of United States Dollars One Hundred Million (USD100,000,000) Only (‘Gift’) which shall be remitted to you at such times and in such manner as I deem fit.”  

The contents of the letter obviously were an “afterthought”, most likely composed by Jho Low himself or his assistants to exonerate Najib. The letter was practically begging readers to believe that the money was donations. It screams “SCAM” because the letters were addressed to Najib’s residence in Jalan Langgak Duta, rather than the Prime Minister’s Office.

 

Even then, the documents of the US$100 million could not prove that the money actually came from the Saudi government or the Al-Saud royal family. The biggest red flag was when Najib’s hotshot lawyer Shafee Abdullah didn’t think it was important to produce Saudi Prince Abdul Aziz Al-Saud or any Saudi top officials as a material witness to help his client, whom the kingdom “valued very much”.

 

Even if the prince could not appear as a witness, it was incredibly simple to prove that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia had donated to Najib Razak. What the defence team needed to do was as simple as getting a letter from the Government of Saudi Arabia, having it authenticated by the Saudi Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, and producing it in the court. Why hadn’t Najib’s clever defence team thought of that? The answer – the Saudi royal family had never paid a penny to Najib.

“It defies reasonable belief that, given the colossal amount remitted into the account of the accused in the form of political donations, that there was no evidence of proper and transparent accounting, taking into account the political party which was headed by the accused at the time was not some fly-by-night rookie political entity, but a party – UMNO – that was at the time Malaysia’s largest political party, having its roots established as far back as 1946,” – Sequerah said.

 

On March 14, 2022, at the trial of ex-Goldman banker Roger Ng Chong Hwa in federal court in Brooklyn, New York, Federal Bureau of Investigation agent Eric Van Dorn confirmed once again that the Saudi donations did not exist at all. The FBI agent testified that not only Jho Low had stolen US$1.42 billion (RM6 billion), Najib Razak similarly stole US$756 million (RM3.2 billion).

 

Najib’s stepson, Riza Aziz, on the other hand, pocketed US$238 million (RM1 billion). The U.S. FBI also revealed that Khadem al-Qubaisi, a former managing director of Abu Dhabi’s state-owned International Petroleum Investment Co. (IPIC), which guaranteed the 1MDB transactions, received US$472.8 million (RM2 billion). Another Abu Dhabi official received US$76.6 million (RM320 million).

One of Najib’s most favourite lies was that he had returned unused donation money and did not benefit from the 1MDB funds. Yes, his favourite argument that he was not a crook is that he had returned US$620 million to Tanore Finance Corp, the same account he received US$680 million from back in March 2013. But he returned the US$620 million to Tanore for a reason.

 

In truth, he returned it because he needed to siphon it somewhere else, as instructed by Jho Low, his partner-in-crime. The US$620 million was returned to Tanore Finance Corp in August 2013 because Rosmah wanted to buy the US$27,300,000 (RM114 million) pink diamond. The next month (Sept 2013), payment was made to jewellery designer Lorraine Schwartz, known as “Jewish Queen of Oscar Bling”.

 

The 22-carat pink diamond, described as “22.17-carat Natural Fancy Intense Pink VS2 clarity (GIA#2115637296) Cut-Cornered Square Modified Brilliant Cut diamond,” was invoiced on 3 July, 2013 for a jaw-dropping US$23,000,000. The second invoice, dated July 31, 2013, was for US$4,300,000 for the accompanying necklace. Hence, the total cost was US27,300,000.

Tanore Finance is a company controlled by Eric Tan Kim Loong, an associate of Jho Low. It was just a staging account set up by Jho Low and Najib to be diverted again to fund their lavish lifestyle. The account had nothing to do with the Saudi government or the kingdom’s royal family. That’s why Singapore seized assets worth S$240 million (RM710 million) linked to Tanore Finance Corp as early as 2016.

 

Besides the 22-carat pink diamond necklace, Najib’s wife, Rosmah, had also purchased 27 other jewelries from the same “Jewish Queen of Oscar Bling”. The 27 pieces of jewelleries, all 18K – white gold, yellow gold, rose gold, black gold – of bangles or necklaces, were priced from US$40,172 to US$240,000 a pop and were purchased during dinner between Rosmah and Schwartz at the Hotel Bel-Air in Los Angeles.

 

Known as a “PONZI” scheme, the details of how the pink diamond necklace was purchased with money stolen from 1MDB had already been exposed in 2017, when the U.S. Justice Department released its investigation papers – documents as thick as 251-page – that linked then-PM Najib Razak as the “MALAYSIAN OFFICIAL 1” and Rosmah as the “wife of MALAYSIAN OFFICIAL 1”.

Therefore, Judge Sequerah noted on Friday that money had moved from Tanore Finance Corporation to Najib’s personal account and then back to Tanore, which he said was indicative of “layering”, a common modus operandi employed in money laundering schemes and designed to obscure the illicit origin of funds. Hence, Sequerah ruled Najib had benefited from the proceeds of unlawful activity.

 

In summary, Justice Collin Lawrence Sequerah said the prosecution had proven its case beyond reasonable doubt, finding that Najib had knowledge of and control over the funds, and that the transactions could not be explained as legitimate political donations. The judge also rejected defence arguments that Najib had been misled, let alone scammed by advisers or that the prosecution was politically motivated.

 

It was very easy for the court to determine that Jho Low was Najib’s partner-in-crime – the “cold hard facts” of Low’s presence and involvement at critical phases of transactions and dealings involving 1MDB as well as “the obvious proximity and the relationship with the accused, including the fact that “no actions were taken” against Jho Low even after the wrongdoing surfaced.

Because Najib was sentenced to 12 years’ jail after being convicted in the SRC International corruption case involving RM42 million, he cannot possibly get less than 12 years’ jail in the 1MDB case due to the magnitude of the losses suffered by the country. He should be grateful that Justice Collin Lawrence Sequerah was kind enough not to deliver the maximum 20 years’ jail.

 

Malaysia suffers the largest debt burden from the 1MDB scandal, with liability amounting to RM34 billion, including RM17 billion in interest commitments, bringing total obligations to nearly RM50 billion. To date, the government has paid RM42 billion in principal and interest. Having recovered RM29 billion, the government or taxpayers still faced an outstanding 1MDB-related debt of about RM13 billion.

 

The burning question is whether the new King – Sultan Ibrahim of Johor – would tarnish his own reputation and image by pardoning Najib again, after the previous monarch Sultan Abdullah of Pahang controversially bulldozed a partial royal pardon for the crook. The ordinary people are watching closely how the Monarch and Malay Elite scratch each other’s back.

To be fair, credit should be extended to former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad for initiating the arrest of protégé-turned-thief Najib Razak. But without former Attorney General Tommy Thomas and the appointment of former Federal Court judge Gopal Sri Ram as senior public prosecutor in building a solid and foolproof case against Najib, the crook might have gotten away – and laugh all his way to the bank.

 

Other Articles That May Interest You …

• The Great Sabah Effect – Why Najib Fails To Get House Arrest
• RM27 Million Up In Smoke – Najib Happy After “Blessing From Power-Crazy Anwar” To Drop Corruption Charges
• Najib May Not Get His Wish For House Arrest After All – Why UMNO Chicken Out After King’s Warning
• Judicial vs. Executive – Crooked Najib Fails To Walk Free In 1MDB Corruption Charges Despite Support From PM Anwar
• More Prison Time For Ex-PM Najib – Jasmine Loo Is Set To Sing Like A Canary As Witness In 1MDB Scandal
• 3rd Time U.S. Says “No Saudi Donation” – FBI Confirms Najib Stole RM3.2 Billion, Riza RM1 Billion & Jho Low RM6 Billion
• Sex, Bribes & Blackmail – Najib’s Appeal In Jeopardy After Leissner Exposed More Dirty Deals In 1MDB Scandal
• 12 Years’ Jail & RM210 Million Fine For World’s Biggest Crook Najib – A Result Of Insulting The Judge’s Intelligence
• Day-72 Of SRC Trial: Najib’s Top-8 Lies That Were So Extraordinary They Might Backfire & Incriminate The Crook
• U.S. Securities Commission – No Saudi Donations, Najib Received RM2.6 Billion Kickbacks From 1MDB
• SRC Trial – Here’re 10 Points Any First Year Law Student Can Use To Nail Najib & Send The Crook To Jail

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December 27th, 2025 by financetwitter

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