Tiaras, diamonds, cash worth $273m seized in Malaysian 1MDB-linked raids

Malaysias police seized roughly 1.1bn ringgit (£206m) of jewellery, handbags and cash in raids linked to former prime minister Najib Razak amid investigations into troubled state fund 1MDB.

A $1.6bn diamond necklace, $12.7m worth of Hermes bags and more than 200 expensive sunglasses were taken from five residences and one office linked to the former prime minister and his wife, the Malaysian police revealed at a news conference today.

“I think this is the biggest seizure in Malaysian history,” Amar Singh, head of the police commercial crime division, said referring to an excess of 12,000 items that were taken in the raids. “We couldnt do the counting at the premises itself because the numbers were just too huge”.

Najib has been under investigation since his unexpected election defeat in May. Current prime minister Mahathir Mohamad is seeking to recoup $4.5bn of funds estimated to have been lost through the state fund which was set up in 2009.

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150 police officers worked in teams to analyse the seized items for five weeks, even working through the Eid al-Fitr Muslim holiday, Singh said. Valuations may increase as some items are yet to be analysed.

The police have said they will be calling in Najib and his wife Rosmah Mansor to give statements and that they have recorded statements from about 30 people as part of the 1MDB probe.

Najib, who has been questioned by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, called the revived investigation a “politically motivated” move.

Since he lost the election, Mr Najib and his wife have been banned from leaving the country.

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