Chronicle Editor
The luxury-loving wife of Malaysia’s former prime minister faced fresh questioning yesterday by anti-corruption investigators probing a multi-billion-dollar scandal that contributed to the old regime losing power.
Rosmah Mansor, widely reviled in Malaysia for her expensive tastes and imperious manner, arrived at the offices of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) to be grilled.
Local media reported this week that anti-corruption officials were wrapping up their probe into Rosmah, and she could be charged soon. It was the second time she has been quizzed by the graft-fighting body since her husband Najib Razak’s coalition was unexpectedly booted out of office at elections in May after six decades in power.
A major factor in the loss were allegations that Najib, his family and his cronies looted billion of dollars from state fund 1MDB in an audacious fraud that stretched from Singapore to Switzerland.
Rosmah’s love of costly overseas shopping trips, designer handbags and jewellery made her a lightning rod for public anger, and fuelled suspicions that she benefitted from the plundering of 1MDB.
After the election loss, a stash of cash, jewellery and hundreds of designer handbags worth as much as $273m was seized from properties linked to Najib in raids around Kuala Lumpur.
Rosmah is often compared to Imelda Marcos, who left behind more than a thousand pairs of shoes after her husband, Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos, was ousted in 1986. — Al Jazeera
Online Reporter