KUALA LUMPUR: Rosmah Mansor, the wife former Malaysian premier Najib Razak, was found guilty of graft on Thursday, just over a week after her husband began serving a 12-year jail term.
The Kuala Lumpur High Court sentenced Rosmah to 10 years in prison for each of three bribery charges and fined her 970 million ringgit (US$216.5 million). The jail terms are to run concurrently.
However, Rosmah will not go straight to jail, pending what could be a lengthy appeals process.
“The accused is found guilty of all three charges,” Judge Mohamed Zaini Mazlan said as Rosmah sat quietly in the dock.
The judge added that her defence was “bare denial and unsubstantiated”.
Prosecutors said Rosmah had sought a bribe of 187.5 million ringgit ($41.8 million) and received 6.5 million ringgit for helping a company secure a solar power project for rural schools in the Malaysian part of Borneo during her husband’s rule.
She still faces 17 other charges involving tax evasion and money laundering.
The 70-year-old has long been reviled by Malaysians for her vast collection of designer handbags, clothing and jewellery, acquired on jet-set overseas shopping trips.
Born the only child of two teachers in the country’s south, Rosmah rose to become one of Malaysia’s most influential people.
She made headlines a decade ago for setting up a new unit under the prime minister’s office known as “FLOM”, an acronym for First Lady of Malaysia. The fully fledged department, which set critics’ tongues wagging, was tasked with handling Rosmah’s operational needs.
Her love for luxury, and in particular Hermes Birkin bags, came under the spotlight after 2018 raids in which police confiscated more than 500 handbags and 12,000 pieces of jewellery estimated to be worth $270 million.
This drew unflattering comparisons with one-time Philippine first lady and renowned shoe addict Imelda Marcos — a big-spending wife who for years was a lightning rod for anger over corruption.
Multi-billion-dollar scandal
On Thursday, dressed in a peach-coloured traditional Malay dress and scarf with a floral print and matching face mask, Rosmah arrived in court escorted by police.
Her son and daughter also attended the court proceedings.
Her disgraced husband Najib was sent to prison nine days ago for an initial batch of charges linked to the multi-billion-dollar financial scandal at the state fund 1MDB that brought down his government in 2018.
He is currently on trial over four additional charges. He faces a maximum of 20 years in jail for abuse of power and up to 15 years for money laundering, if convicted.
Rosmah’s reputation had contributed to accusations that the ousted ruling establishment had lost touch with economically struggling and middle-class Malaysians.
The 1MDB scandal sparked investigations in the United States, Switzerland and Singapore, whose financial systems were believed to have been used to launder the money.
The US Justice Department has said more than $4.5 billion was stolen from 1MDB between 2009 and 2015 by high-level officials at the fund and their associates.
The alleged mastermind of the fraud, Penang-born financier Jho Low, is still at large and believed to be in China.
The authors of Billion Dollar Whale, the definitive book on Jho Low and the 1MDB scandal, continue to track leads on the fugitive via their Project Brazen website and related online activities.
