Najib “songlap-ed” the most money from Malaysia, but who’s number two?

Unless you’ve been stuck in a fallout shelter without WiFi for the past 20 years, you’ll probably have heard of Najib’s RM2.6 billion scandal which tops the leaderboard for Malaysia’s corruption cases in terms of monetary value. While the 1MDB kerfuffle might be the most widely known Malaysian graft case, have y’all ever wondered if anyone else even came close to the amount songlap-ed by Bossku?

Well, since the songlap leaderboard isn’t actually a thing, this writer had to wander in the Google wasteland for over 7 hours (yeah, real thorough research, we know) to put together a list of the top 3 corruption scandals (money-wise) and the people who were implicated in them. Before y’all take a bite into the corruption karipap, here are the criteria we used for this article:

• No Najib, cuz he’s the top-top
• The people involved in the allegations had to at least be remanded for investigations
• We won’t include anyone who was cleared of any wrongdoings by the courts or had their charges dropped
• The money involved has to be over RM100 million

That means people like Tan Sri Musa Aman or Tengku Adnan are a no-go. Okay, got your napkin ready? Here we go.

1. At least RM200 million – Zahid Hamidi

This one’s a doozy – our former Home Minister, Zahid Hamidi, was first arrested by MACC in October 2018 and charged in court with 45 counts of CBT, and abuse of power involving roughly RM114 million of Yayasan Akalbudi’s (a limited company for charity work) funds. In the next few months, he would be slapped with another two CBT charges amounting to RM10.26 million, but it doesn’t end there.

In June 2019, the courts buried him under another mountain of 40 charges (bringing the total to 87 charges) relating to monies (RM85.5 million) he claimed to have received from a foreign visa system operator, Ultra Kinrara Sdn. Bhd (UKSB). Apparently, a former director and employee of UKSB came out with ground-shattering revelations of a number of “political donations” made by the company:

• Monthly payments to Zahid Hamidi from 2014 to 2018 (S$200,000 per month), increased to S$520,000 per month sometime in 2017
• RM1.3 million to Muhyiddin (Home Minister in 2018)
• RM3.7 million to Khairy Jamaluddin
• Between RM200K and RM300K to Reezal Merican (Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs in 2018)
• Undisclosed amounts to Hishammuddin, Shafie Apdal, and Anifah Aman

As of July 2022, the courts have quashed Zahid Hamidi’s attempts to delay the prosecution from grilling him in court with questions, so we guess we’ll have to see how his ongoing case ends.

2. RM144.6 million – Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim

Ex-Tabung Haji chairman and current MP for Baling, Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim, ironically had his tabungs emptied after MACC raided his residences and offices in May 2018, confiscating over RM500K in various currencies, some documents, jewelry, and luxury watches. He had to tender his resignation from Tabung Haji a few days after the raid, and was subsequently investigated by MACC for alleged corruption.

A few months later, Tabung Haji snitched on the man – they called the PDRM, reporting the alleged misuse of RM22 million belonging to Yayasan Tabung Haji, their own charitable fund. The worst has yet to come, as MACC arrested Abdul Azeez and his brother in January 2019. He was charged with a combined 12 counts of corruption and money laundering amounting to RM144.6 million the next day.

After a series of trials, the Court of Appeal announced in July 2022 that they would come to a decision on Abdul Azeez’s appeal to strike out his charges, and this case, again, is a situation of wait-and-see.

3. RM118 million – Shahrizat Abdul Jalil’s husband & NFC Corp

We’re ending it with el clasico, the #Cowgate. Back in 2011, the National Feedlot Corporation (NFC), headed by Shahrizat Abdul Jalil’s (ex-Minister of Women, Family and Community Development) husband, Mohamad Salleh Ismail, was brought to public attention with the Auditor-General’s 2010 report which highlighted the failure of NFC in meeting the government’s annual quota of beef production – NFC’s RM74 million center in Gemas had only produced 3,289 cows when the target was supposed to be 8,000 heads of cattle.

The opposition at the time, most notably Rafizi Ramli, blew the whistle on the whole thirng: the government had disbursed a loan of RM250 million to the corporation to boost the cattle industry in Malaysia but the money was instead, allegedly, used to purchase luxury condominiums in Bangsar and Singapore, and two plots of land in Putrajaya. Mohamad Salleh was charged with 2 counts of criminal breach of trust (CBT) amounting to RM49.7 million, and two charges relating to misuse of company funds.

Eventually, he was acquitted of all charges, but the government initiated a civil suit against Shahrizat’s husband and three kids, claiming that they had misappropriated RM118 million out of the RM250 million and the government was seeking RM253.62 million for the loan that was never paid back, plus interest. And while the issue might be settled out of court, the beef doesn’t seem to be over, and the saga continues.

What about the other scandals and allegations?

Of course, Malaysia’s corruption scene isn’t limited to the top 3 we’ve listed above, and we came to the painful decision to omit the rest because they’re either:

• Pure speculation/allegations by other people; or
• The amounts involved were far below RM100 million

Take for example former Negeri Sembilan Chief Minister Mohd Isa Abdul Samad’s case, where he was sentenced last year to 54 years’ jail for corruption charges amounting to RM3 million, or Bung Mokhtar’s ongoing corruption case of RM2.8 million. We’re NOT saying that these cases don’t matter, cuz they obviously do, but the article’s gonna be hella long if we included all the songlap-tion cases under RM100 million.

In case y’all are hungry for more corruption karipap, we heavily referenced Sinar Project’s Politikus database, which y’all can visit here. If we missed any cases involving over RM100 million, let us know in the comments, and we’ll add them in!