Massive seizure
Designer handbags, jewellery and bags of cash confiscated from Najib-linked condo
Boxes containing confiscated items being loaded into a police truck in Kuala Lumpur. Police seized a few hundred designer handbags and dozens of suitcases containing cash, jewellery and other valuables as part of a probe on former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak. (Inset) A close-up of the boxes said to contain expensive handbags.
KUALA LUMPUR: The raid at one of the residences linked to former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak has garnered a lot of attention due to the sheer value of the items seized.
Hundreds of boxes, with a number of it in Hermes’ signature orange colour, were carted away from the Pavilion Residences here as part of the investigations into 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB).
A team of police from the Federal Commercial Crime Investigation Department (CCID) seized 284 boxes containing designer handbags such as the luxurious Birkin range by Hermes and Louis Vuitton handbags.
Other bags found were filled with jewellery, watches and bags of cash during a raid at three condominium units there.
The police checked six locations linked to Najib, including the Prime Minister’s Office and his official residence.
CCID director Comm Datuk Seri Amar Singh, who led the search and seizure, said the raid at Pavilion Residences was part of their investigations into 1MDB.
“Our personnel checked these bags and discovered various currencies, including ringgit and US dollars, watches and jewellery in 72 luggage bags,” he told reporters at the scene.
He said it was impossible for police to estimate the value of the items seized as there were so many items and so much cash.
Comm Amar said the investigations were focused on 1MDB and not on any particular individual.
“This apartment is not owned by Najib but another Tan Sri,” he said.
Comm Amar added that the task force had also seized documents connected to 1MDB at the Prime Minister’s Office on Wednesday.
Over at Najib’s house in Taman Duta, four police cars left with a “mystery box” after spending six and a half hours there yesterday.
The contents of the blue box are unknown and it is still unclear if the safe that police have been trying to crack since first entering the residence has been opened.
Meanwhile, Malay daily Sinar Harian reported last night that the safe, located on the first floor of Najib’s house, has been successfully cracked open.
Quoting sources, the paper reported that two locksmiths unlocked the safe, which contained cash.
However, police had yet to confirm this at press time.
Najib’s lawyer Datuk Harpal Singh Grewal had said on Thursday that police had to drill into the 20-year-old safe as the key had been misplaced.
On Harpal’s claim that his client, family and staff felt harassed by the police checks at his residence at Taman Duta, Comm Amar said police had been conducting them- selves professionally throughout the investigations.
“But if our search has to take a certain amount of time, it will take that amount of time.
“We are doing it as meticulously as we can,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Malaysian AntiCorruption Commission (MACC) has summoned Najib to its headquarters in Putrajaya next Tuesday.
It is believed that this is in connection with its earlier investigations into a 1MDB subsidiary.
Highly placed sources confirmed that a notice was served on the former prime minister by a group of officers who were spotted entering Najib’s private residence in Taman Duta at 4pm yesterday.
The sources added that the MACC would seek Najib’s cooperation on the issue of SRC International and the said RM2.6bil fund.
“We have asked him to come to the headquarters on Tuesday for us to take his statement,” sources said.
In 2015, then MACC deputy commissioner (operations) Datuk Seri Shukri Abdull had said the commission had well-founded basis to initiate an investigation into SRC International.
While the anti-graft body investigated the subsidiary, the probe into 1MDB was carried out by the police.
SRC International is a subsidiary of 1MDB, which has been accused of transferring millions of ringgit into the private accounts of Najib.