KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 26 — Datuk Seri Najib Razak will find out today if he is convicted or can walk free from 25 criminal charges in his 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) case, after over 300 days of trial spanning more than six years at the High Court.

If the High Court finds Najib guilty, the 72-year-old former prime minister will be facing jail time and hefty fines.

If the High Court finds that the prosecution has not proven Najib’s guilt beyond reasonable doubt, he would be acquitted and be free from the charges.

What are Najib’s 25 charges?

In simple terms, Najib is alleged to have misused his positions in the government and 1MDB to obtain RM2.22 billion for himself, and to have laundered money by receiving, spending and transferring funds belonging to the company.

Specifically, there are four abuse of power charges that allege he used his roles as prime minister, finance minister and chairman of 1MDB’s board of advisers to secure those financial benefits totalling RM2.22 billion across four phases of the 1MDB scheme.

The four sums involved in the abuse of power charges are:

• RM60,629,839.43;
• RM90,899,927.28;
• RM2,081,476,926 (this RM2.08 billion is the money he is accused of laundering); 
• RM44,570,920.70.

The remaining 21 charges all relate to alleged money laundering involving funds with illegal origins.

These funds were allegedly laundered through Najib’s personal AmIslamic bank account (Account 9694).

The breakdown of the 21 charges is as follows:

• Receiving US$681 million (RM2.08 billion) belonging to a 1MDB subsidiary, transferred from Tanore Finance Corporation’s account into Najib’s Account 9694 in nine transactions between March 22 and April 10, 2013.
• Issuing five cheques totalling RM22.649 million between August 2 and August 14, 2013 — namely RM20 million to Umno, RM100,000 to Umno Batu Kawan, and three cheques totalling RM2.549 million for speechwriting and social media management services.
• Transferring RM2.034 billion (US$620 million) in five transactions from Najib’s Account 9694 back to Tanore between August 2 and August 23, 2013.
• Transferring RM161.41 million in two transactions from Najib’s Account 9694 to his new personal AmIslamic bank account (Account 1880) on August 27 and August 30, 2013. 

Tanore Finance Corporation is a company controlled by Eric Tan Kim Loong, an associate of Low Taek Jho — better known as Jho Low.

Najib had said that Account 9694 was opened to receive Saudi donations. The account was closed on August 30, 2013.

Over 10 days in October and November this year, Najib’s lawyers and the prosecution presented their final arguments on whether he should be convicted of the 25 charges.

Highlights of what Najib said

Najib said he believed the US$681 million (RM2.08 billion) which entered his bank account was a “donation” promised by Saudi Arabia’s ruler King Abdullah.

He also claimed that he returned the unused US$620 million (RM2.034 billion) portion of the donation.

Najib said his “belief” about the Saudi donation was not a “made-up fantasy”, citing reasons that included four donation letters supposedly issued by a Saudi prince promising him large sums of money as gifts.

He denied that the money could be traced back to 1MDB, and said he had used the funds — which he described as donations — for political purposes and social welfare.

Among other things, Najib also challenged the credibility of prosecution witnesses who testified against him.

Highlights of what the prosecution said

The prosecution described Najib’s Saudi or “Arab donation” claim as a “fiction”, saying that he had failed to prove that the four purported donation letters are genuine. 

The prosecution argued that Najib could have asked Saudi Arabia’s authorities to confirm that the money came from them. It claimed that he had instead deliberately avoided asking questions and chose to shut his eyes to the money’s origins.

It said Najib knew, or had reason to believe, that illegal money was entering his bank account.

The prosecution also argued that even if Najib claimed to have used the money in good faith, the offence of money laundering would still apply because the funds were “tainted”, as they were illegally taken from 1MDB.

The prosecution maintained that its witnesses were credible.

What’s next?

Whatever the High Court decides today, the ruling can still be appealed to the Court of Appeal and, subsequently, to the Federal Court.

As such, today’s ruling will likely not mark the end of the 1MDB case.

However, it will close the first chapter of the trial at the High Court.

Regardless of the outcome, the decision will not affect Najib’s current imprisonment.

This is because he is currently serving a jail sentence in a separate case involving the misappropriation of RM42 million from SRC International Sdn Bhd.

Najib is now about halfway through his six-year jail term, which will end in August 2028 or August 2029, depending on whether he pays the RM50 million fine imposed in the SRC case.