Will Najib or Umno get the RM114 million?

KUALA LUMPUR (May 20): The High Court today has dismissed the government’s forfeiture suit for RM114 million in cash seized during a police raid of a Pavilion luxury condominium unit owned by OBYU Holdings Sdn Bhd.

The RM114 million cash is part of the assets seized by the authorities from a raid in 2018. This was part of the government’s investigation into the 1MDB scandal.

Now, no one knows whether ex-PM Najib Razak will claim custody of the whopping sum of cash, or will it be Umno?

The raid three years ago was widely publicised and the seizure was linked to alleged misappropriation from 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB).

The entire world watched the video of the police hauling the goods while Najib was facing the biggest crisis in his political career.

In the meantime, Umno had lost the elections in 2018 to the Pakatan Harapan and this led to court cases against some of its prominent leaders.

So far, the judge in the case did not make any order as to who will get the money. 

In delivering his judgment today, Justice Datuk Muhammad Jamil Hussin shows the prosecution’s failure to prove the monies were obtained from illegal activities. 

“As the predicate offence was not proven, the issue that the monies were obtained from illegal activities do not arise. Thus, it cannot be said that the money to be forfeited is the result of the conduct of the predicate offence,” he says. 

The judge also says the prosecution has failed to bring any evidence that the cash originated from 1MDB.

The prosecution has indicated that they will appeal against the decision.

Besides the cash, which was found in numerous currencies, other seized assets included 12,000 pieces of jewellery, 284 handbags, 423 watches and 234 sunglasses, totalling RM900 million to RM1.1 billion.