Najib arrested for tampering 1MDB report

Najib Tun Razak has been arrested by graft investigators over the "tampering" of the 1MDB final audit report.

The former prime minister, was arrested around 11:00 am at the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission headquarters here, minutes after he arrived for a fresh round of questioning over the issue.

Najib was seen entering the MACC headquarters at around 10.42 am on Monday (December 10).

MACC sources however said that he would be released if he can come up with money for bail.

On November 25, Auditor-General Madinah Mohamad said that parts of the 1MDB final audit report were removed. These sections mentioned the presence of fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho, also known as Jho Lo.

She revealed that the directive to make the changes came from Shukry Salleh, who was then the principal private secretary to Najib when he was prime minister.

The changes to the 1MDB report were made on February 26, 2016 on grounds that it was a "sensitive issue".

To date, apart from Najib, the MACC had questioned several people about the report tampering.

This includes former chief Dzulkifli Ahmad, in his capacity as a legal officer in the Attorney-General's Chambers, former Auditor-General Ambrin Buang, former chief secretary to the government Dr Ali Hamsa and the then 1MDB group president and chief executive officer Arul Kanda Kandasamy.

Copyright: The Star Online/ Asia News Network