Najib's RM50M fine is paid, clearing the way to house arrest

UMNO says the money is in. Malaysia's former ruling party announced Friday (Nov 6) that it has paid the RM50 million fine (US$12.3 million) slapped on former prime minister Najib Razak, clearing the last condition on a royal pardon that lets him swap Kajang Prison for his own home. Secretary-general Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki said the Najib Razak Solidarity Fund hit its target and the party wrapped up payment procedures with the Kuala Lumpur High Court that morning. The fund account is now closed.

The timing set off a scramble of speculation. Malaysian media reported Najib could walk out of Kajang Prison as early as Friday, with police spotted around his Langgak Duta residence in Kuala Lumpur, where local outlets say he is expected to serve out his term. The house was inspected and assessed by authorities back in September. Not everyone was in the loop: Najib's wife Rosmah Mansor told reporters neither she nor the family had been told anything about the payment, according to Free Malaysia Today.

The mechanics of the sentence are unusual. Najib will serve it alone under prison department supervision, with family visits restricted. His lawyer Hasnal Rezue Merican said the Langgak Duta property was picked precisely because nobody in the family lives there, making it usable as a prison facility, the New Straits Times reported. Najib's daughter Nooryana Najwa has said the residence sat empty since her father was locked up on Aug 23, 2022.

The pardon itself landed on Sep 18, when Malaysia's king, Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar, granted Najib a conditional release after a Federal Territories Pardons Board meeting he chaired. The deal: serve the rest of his six-year term — running to Aug 23, 2028 — at home, provided the RM50 million fine got paid, among other conditions. UMNO's crowdfunding drive launched the same day and pulled in more than RM1 million within 24 hours, though by Tuesday Asyraf admitted the target was still unmet, with daily contributions averaging between RM5,000 and RM10,000. Some donors kicked in as little as RM1.

There was doubt right up to the end. Attorney-General Mohd Dusuki Mokhtar told reporters on Sunday the fine was unpaid, and Najib's lawyer Shafee Abdullah said Wednesday he still had no instructions on whether his client would pay. Najib's legal team has argued his ability to settle the sum 'does not lie in his own hands,' pointing to frozen assets and enforcement proceedings.

The backstory is the 1MDB scandal. Najib, now 73, was sentenced in July 2020 to 12 years' jail and a RM210 million fine on three counts of criminal breach of trust, three of money laundering and one of abuse of power, over RM42 million funnelled from SRC International — a former subsidiary of state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad — into his personal accounts in 2014 and 2015. A partial royal pardon in January 2024 halved the jail term and cut the fine, setting up the payment now complete.