Hafarizam Harun is perhaps one of a few lucky lawyers who become a billionaire for fixing problems for UMNO (once the dominant political party) and Najib Razak (once the most powerful man in Malaysia). However, his lucky star is no longer smiling after the downfall of his boss, former Prime Minister Najib in the May General Election last year. Karma has come knocking on his door.
The 47-year-old UMNO’s top lawyer has been charged today (Feb 21) with two counts of money laundering – depositing RM15 million (US$3.7 million; £2.8 million) via three cheques from former Prime Minister Najib Razak into his law firm’s bank account. Hafarizam faces imprisonment up to 15 years and a fine of not less than five times the sum, if he is convicted.
In the first charge, Hafarizam deposited proceeds of unlawful activity totalling RM11.5 million through two AmIslamic Bank Bhd cheques belonging to Najib into a client account of Messrs Hafarizam Wan & Aisha Mubarak at CIMB Bank Bhd. In the second charge, he was accused of committing the same offence involving RM3.5 million, which saw a cheque from Najib deposited into the law firm’s account.
Like the so-called hotshot lawyer Shafee Abdullah engaged to defend Najib on charges of stealing and plundering the national coffers in relation to the infamous 1MDB scandal, Mr. Hafarizam was Najib’s preferred lawyer when his service was required to rape and corrupt the judiciary system in order to deliver the desired results in favour of the government of the day.
Mr. Hafarizam is the same lawyer who worked together with Mr. Shafee in the 2009 Perak Constitutional Crisis which brought down the now-defunct Pakatan Rakyat government so that Najib could snatch back the Perak state using illegal and despicable methods, including the removal of Speaker Sivakumar forcefully and thuggishly.
Together with then-Chief Justice Zaki Azmi, the trio had succeeded in the political coup in Perak, arguably one of the most shameful acts of corruption in the judiciary system. As a reward for their roles, a RM2.2 billion contract for the 50-km Kinrara-Damansara Expressway (Kidex) project was gifted to Emrail Sdn Bhd and Zabima Engineering Sdn Bhd – both without any highway construction experience.
As it turned out, Zaki’s wife, Nik Sazlina Mohd Zain, was director of Zabima Engineering, while Hafarizam personally admitted and confirmed he sits as director of both companies. Although the disgraced UMNO lawyer Hafarizam Harun had rubbished he and Chief Justice Zaki Azmi got the windfall for bending the rule of law to help UMNO, the fact remains that their roles was “tainted with mala fide (bad faith).”
One doesn’t need Einstein to see that corruption and cronyism were involved in their roles in the 2009 Perak Crisis that saw the state government switch from then-Pakatan Rakyat (PR) to Barisan Nasional (BN). Hafarizam shamelessly claimed that the highway contract was awarded to him after the company proved itself with its track records, despite the fact they had none.
When Mahathir (then opposition) filed a lawsuit against Najib Razak, seeking the crook to pay RM42 million in aggravated damages and RM2.6 billion in exemplary damages to the Government for compromising various institutions involved in investigating 1MDB, Hafarizam Harun argued that Najib was not a public officer in his capacity as the Prime Minister and Finance Minister, hence he cannot be sued.
After opposition Pakatan Harapan stunningly won the May General Election last May, a request to review the Federal Court’s earlier decision in refusing to grant Mahathir leave to appeal, in a bid to reinstate their suit against Najib which was struck out by the High Court and Court of Appeal, has been granted and a hearing has been rescheduled to April 23 this year.
Twisting and spinning that Najib cannot be sued because the premier was not a public officer was definitely cunning, although such attempt was laughable. At the peak of 1MDB scandal, people’s jaws dropped to the floor when the legal eagle proclaimed that Najib’s signature on 1MDB documents does not necessarily mean that the prime minister has knowledge on 1MDB matters.
Make no mistake. Like his buddy Shafee Abdullah, Hafarizam Harun’s extraordinary success in the courtroom was possible primarily because almost all the judges – from the lowest to the highest court – have been fabulously perverted. Hafarizam and Shafee were merely village champions who could bully their opponents because the referees had been bought and were under political master’s payroll.
The serious test came when a furiously mad Najib Razak decided to sue the Wall Street Journal over articles linking him to 1MDB scandal. Hafarizam, whose law firm was acting for the Prime Minister, fumbled and stumbled spectacularly when the so-called local legal eagle faced foreign forces for the first time. He childishly sent a letter to the WSJ legal team seeking clarification.
Yes, the village champion Hafarizam and his team actually embarrassed themselves in 2015 when they sought clarification from the WSJ and Dow Jones as to whether their article meant that Najib had misappropriated funds. The Wall Street Journal simply replied that it saw no need to provide any confirmation as its news report and a subsequent opinion piece “speak for themselves”.
Counsellor Hafarizam had even flown to the U.S. on an exploratory mission in relation to Najib’s case against the WSJ. And because the WSJ did not botherto respond to Najib’s silly letter, the lawyer conveniently announced that it would be difficult for him to advise Najib since the WSJ refused to clarify the allegations that almost US$700 million (RM2.6 billion) in 1MDB funds were channelled into Najib’s personal accounts.
Needless to say, the lawsuit never took off and died a natural death. Against a foreign independent judiciary system such as one in the United States, Najib’s favourite lawyer was powerless and did not stand a chance. Without the ability of bribing corrupt judges in the U.S., Hafarizam Harun could not cast his magic to win the case against the Wall Street Journal for his client.
Besides being the crooked lawyer, Hafarizam was also known to be a sexist. When Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) President Wan Azizah Wan Ismail was rumoured to take over Selangor leadership from Abdul Khalid Ibrahim in 2014, the UMNO legal adviser said a woman cannot become Selangor Mentri Besarbecause their “menstrual cycle” would get in the way of certain official duties.
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