Items seized from six premises linked to ousted Malaysian leader Najib Razak, including cash, a vast stash of jewellery and luxury handbags, are worth up to US$273 million, police said Wednesday.
“The total cost of all the items, the retail price, will be touching 910 (million) to 1.1 billion ringgit,” Amar Singh, the police’s head of commercial crime, told a press conference.
That is equivalent to between US$225 million and US$273 million.
The items included 116 million ringgit (US$28.8 million) in cash in 26 different currencies, about 12,000 pieces of jewellery and hundreds of handbags as well as a large number of watches.
The raids were connected to investigations into the scandal at state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).
“We couldn’t do the counting at the premises because the numbers were too huge,” Singh said, adding that the seizures were the biggest in Malaysian history.
It took three days, six cash counting machines and 22 officials from the central bank to count the cash found at the premises, he said.
Jewellery accounted for the biggest portion of the seizure - 12,000 pieces of jewellery that Singh said would cost 660 million to 880 million ringgit at retail prices.
The single most expensive item was a diamond necklace with yellow gold - worth 6.4 million ringgit at cost price, he said.
Authorities are yet to establish who the owners of the seized items are, Singh said, adding that Najib and his wife Rosmah Mansor would “soon” be called in for questioning.
Singh also said the police seized a total of 567 handbags in 37 different brands. The Hermes bags alone were worth 51.3 million ringgit, he said.
The police also found 423 watches worth 78 million ringgit and 234 pairs of sunglasses.
Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, in an interview with South China Morning Post last week, said the Malaysian government was taking time to build a watertight case in the 1MDB financial scandal and would not be swayed by populist sentiment.
Najib, who led the country for almost a decade, has consistently denied any wrongdoing, having explained three years ago that the nearly US$700 million transferred into his account had been a donation from an unnamed Saudi royal.
The US Department of Justice has said the money came from 1MDB, and that a total of US$4.5 billion was misappropriated from the fund.
Speaking to Reuters last week, Najib said he shouldn’t be blamed for the alleged stealing from 1MDB, and declared he knew nothing about the money from the state fund appearing in his bank account.
He also said most luxury handbags seized in the raids were gifts given to his wife and daughter and had nothing to do with 1MDB.
Najib said his son-in-law Daniyar Nazarbayev, the nephew of Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev, also gifted many of the handbags to Rosmah.
Here’s a breakdown of what was seized
Cash
A total of 116.7 million ringgit, made up by 26 currencies, was seized. Police, with the help of 22 central bank officials and six counting machines, took 3 days to count the money.
Jewellery
A total of 12,000 individual items of jewellery were found in 25 bags.
Experts estimated the jewellery would retail for between 660 million and 880 million ringgit.
The items included 1,400 necklaces, 2,200 rings, 2,100 bangles, 2,800 pairs of earrings, 1,600 brooches and 14 tiaras.
The single most expensive item was a yellow-gold necklace with diamonds, valued at 6.4 million ringgit, excluding workmanship.
Handbags
Police seized 567 luxury handbags from 37 different brands, including Hermes, Prada, Channel, Judith Leiber and Bijan.
The Hermes bags alone were valued at 51.3 million ringgit, and police have yet to complete a valuation of the other handbags, although some of the bags were worth 1.6 million ringgit each.
Watches
Police seized 423 watches made up of more than 100 brands, including Rolex, Chopard and Richard Mille.
The watches have an estimated value of 78 million ringgit. The most expensive piece, a Paul Newman Rolex Daytona, was valued at 3.5 million ringgit.
Sunglasses
A total of 234 pairs of sunglasses were seized, worth an estimated 374,000 ringgit. Brands included Versace, Gucci, Cartier and Dior.
Agence France-Presse, Reuters and Bloomberg
