Panama Papers reveal Najib’s brother owns offshore firm

PETALING JAYA: Newly-leaked documents from Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca reveal that the brother of former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak owns an offshore company in the British Virgin Islands.

According to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), which scrutinised the documents, this however does not imply any wrongdoing on his part.

In March 2017, Mossack Fonseca discovered that a company it had registered in the British Virgin Islands was owned by Datuk Mohamed Nizam Abdul Razak, the younger brother of Najib, it said.

According to the ICIJ, the new documents revealed details of “swollen bank accounts and offshore assets of political figures accused of state-wide looting”.

The ICIJ said in a report yesterday that it discovered that Mohamed Nizam was the owner of Everbright Universal Holdings Ltd, which owns properties in the United States.

It added that it had contacted Mohamed Nizam unsuccessfully and said that his Credit Suisse banker did not respond to its e-mails.

Mohamed Nizam studied politics, philosophy and economics at Oxford University.

Back in the 1990s, he was the CEO of PB Securities Sdn Bhd.

In a report in 2008, Mohamed Nizam was listed as the non-executive director in several public-listed companies including Hiap Teck Venture Bhd, Mamee DoubleDecker (M) Bhd, Delloyd Ventures Bhd and Yeo Hiap Seng (M) Bhd.

Previously, ICIJ also revealed two offshore companies owned by Najib’s son, Mohd Nazifuddin Mohd Najib, which were leaked from the Panama Papers.