Source: Less than half of items seized from condo belong to Rosmah

Less than half the items seized from Pavilion Residences during a May police raid as part of 1MDB investigations belong to Rosmah Mansor, a source has said.

The source, who is close to the wife of former premier Najib Abdul Razak, claimed that there were items belonging to Nooryana Najwa's mother-in-law Maira Nazarbayev, such as handbags and watches.

"She (Maira) kept some of her personal items at Najwa's house. So some of the items that are now in the authorities’ possession belong to her. They are worth at least RM10 million. These items should be returned to her," the source said.

The source added that other items seized in one of three apartment units raided belonged to Cindy Tan, the wife of Pavilion Residences’ owner Desmond Lim, and other individuals.

It was previously noted that certain boxes seized during the raid had been labelled "Datin Cindy" and also "Puan Sri Cindy".

"The rest of items seized belong to Najwa and her family, as well as (Najib’s son Mohd) Ashman. These include computers, wedding gifts, and baby items. They have nothing to do with 1MDB," said the source.

On May 18, police raided units linked to Najib at the upscale Pavilion Residences in Kuala Lumpur. They seized 284 boxes of luxury handbags, and 72 luggage bags filled with jewellery and cash.

Combined with items seized from Najib's home in Langgak Duta, police have estimated that the retail value of seized items could be as high as RM1.1 billion.

Ongoing reclamation

It has also been learnt that a team of lawyers who represent Rosmah - Azamuddin Ab Aziz, Iskandar Shah Ibrahim, and Robert Pasang Alam - are in the early stages of obtaining the full list of seized items and had sent a letter to the police last month.

The trio (photo) are former officers with the Attorney-General's Chambers who worked in the anti-money laundering unit.

"The lawyers are expected to get the list by next week. There's a lot of work to be done…first, they need to inventory about 18,000 items where they will categorise the items accordingly. This process will take weeks to complete.

"Then, they will retrieve evidence such as receipts, invoice, and other documents as requested by the police in their written reply to a letter sent by the lawyers on July 23."

The source said Rosmah's party will divide the inventory into four categories.

He said the first category will comprise personal items belonging to Rosmah and her family which were acquired before 2013.

The second category, he said, will be gifts given by foreign dignitaries and Middle Eastern countries' royal families.

"Some of the watches (given) have a royal crest on the watch’s back. Some items were removed from the custom-made boxes with the Saudi emblem logo (a palm tree and two crossed swords) when they were seized. These are all gifts.

"One interesting question is when (Federal Commercial Crimes Investigation Department chief) Amar Singh said police would call these gift-givers for questioning. How are they going to do that?"

The third category will comprise Najwa's wedding gifts, which the source claimed were also removed from their boxes when they were seized. 

The final category will list items belonging to Maira.

When contacted by Malaysiakini, Rosmah’s lawyer Iskandar confirmed that the team had made a written request to the police to claim the items.

"Yes, there has been an application (to claim the items) made through Azamuddin. For now, it's still at an early stage. The list of the items is currently in the hands of Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, who represents Najib," he said. -Mkini