Former Malaysian PM Najib Razak has been found guilty of all seven charges in the first of several multi-million-dollar corruption trials, according to BBC.
He has been charged with criminal breach of trust, money laundering, abuse of power; furthermore his ruling period is linked with the scandal around Malaysia's 1MDB sovereign wealth fund. As a result, Najib could now face decades in prison.
The current verdicts are centred on USD 10 mln transferred from the fund to the then-prime minister's private accounts. According to BBC, Najib denies all wrongdoing and says he was misled by financial advisers - fugitive financier Jho Low.
The 1MDB scandal is linked to the 1 Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) fund set up in 2009, when Najib Razak was prime minister, to boost the country's economic development. In 2015, questions were raised around its activities after it missed payments owed to banks and bondholders.
Malaysian and US authorities allege that USD 4.5 billion was illicitly plundered from the fund and diverted into private pockets. The missing money has been linked to luxury real estate, a private jet, Van Gogh, and Monet artworks - and even a Hollywood blockbuster, the Wolf of Wall Street.
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