JHO LOW WAS MERELY ROSMAH’S HIGH-CLASS STOOGE? TRIAL TO FINALLY FLUSH OUT EX-FIRST LADY’S ROLE AS ‘POLITICAL FORCE & CENTRAL ACTOR’ IN 1MDB DEBACLE?

Rosmah Mansor, wife of Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, arrives at the Anti-Corruption Agency for questioning in Putrajaya, Wednesday, Oct. 3, 2018. Rosmah is to be questioned by the country's anti-graft agency for the third time as investigators prepare possible charges against her including money laundering in the multi-billion-dollar scandal. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)

WITH Rosmah Mansor in the dock to face money-laundering charges tomorrow, her case will be followed closely to see if she really was the “political force and central actor” who led her “less decisive” husband, Najib Razak, deeper and deeper into the 1Malaysia Development Bhd scandal.

These descriptions, by The Wall Street Journal in an article in June, had shed light on the role the former prime minister’s wife is said to have played in the financial scandal that shocked the world for its audacity and magnitude.

Her expected trial could also shed light on the wealth she had accumulated, most infamously in the form of a pink diamond, other extravagant pieces of jewellery and luxury handbags, and whether these were truly gifts or purchases made with funds allegedly stolen from 1MDB, the state fund her husband created and oversaw.

Rosmah was arrested at 3.20pm today at the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) headquarters in Putrajaya, where she had gone about four hours earlier for a third round of questioning.

She will be charged at the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court tomorrow. Najib was charged earlier and now faces 32 counts covering misuse of position, money-laundering and criminal breach of trust involving a RM2.6 billion “donation” and RM42 million from a former 1MDB subsidiary, SRC International.

Rosmah, 66, has been seen as a central figure to the 1MDB scandal because of her connections with Penang-born businessman Low Taek Jho, whom she brought to Najib to help set up 1MDB in 2009.

Rosmah Mansor in Monaco in August 2010. Rosmah and her lawyers have never commented on any of the incriminating claims made about her over the years in connection to the 1MDB scandal. – EPA pic, October 3, 2018.

Low is now wanted by the Malaysian authorities and has been charged with money-laundering in absentia.

“People who know Rosmah says she helped orchestrate the alleged involvement of a young Malaysian financier, who the DoJ (Department of Justice) says helped set up the 1MDB fund and then oversaw its looting,” the WSJ reported in its June article.

Rosmah was said to have had her own work space and staff in the Prime Minister’s Office, and may have influenced her husband to pursue more wealth, the WSJ said, citing sources close to the couple.

Najib was said to be “only partly in the loop” over the 1MDB affair and that Rosmah “had more of a picture than the husband”, the WSJ reported.

As claims of dodgy deals by 1MDB made the news in 2015 and scrutiny into Rosmah’s luxury items grew, she was reportedly the force that pushed the Prime Minister’s Office to issue a public statement that her wealth was “in line with Najib’s legacy family assets”.

The response was a counterstatement to earlier remarks made by Najib’s four brothers, who had said their late father – second prime minister Abdul Razak Hussein – was well known for his frugality and had left little money for the family.

In her autobiography, Rosmah had said her jewellery and handbags were bought with her own money.

Some of the jewellery seized in MACC raids on premises linked to Najib Razak earlier this year. – The Malaysian Insight file pic, October 3, 2018.

These items were displayed for the world to see when police raided several premises linked to Najib in May after Pakatan Harapan won the general election and formed the federal government. More than RM1 billion worth of jewellery, designer handbags, watches, sunglasses and cash were seized.

In 2016, as the US DoJ began investigations into US$4.5 billion allegedly stolen from 1MDB to purchase assets and luxury goods, sources told the WSJ that Rosmah had tried to stop the probe using American lobbyists.

Rosmah Mansor and Najib Razak at the Asean summit in Kuala Lumpur in November 2015. The WSJ has casts aspersions on the true nature of Rosmah’s involvement in the 1MDB scandal. – EPA pic, October 3, 2018.

Rosmah and her lawyers have never commented on any of these claims made about her, despite requests for a response.

It still not known if Rosmah had personally directed the complex transactions that diverted funds from 1MDB.

But it was she, according to the WSJ’s sources, who had told her husband Najib to stand firm, calling the corruption allegations against him a “test from Allah”.

– https://www.themalaysianinsight.com/