PETALING JAYA: Former prime minister Najib Razak has again denied any involvement in alleged corruption linked to a 2002 submarine deal following a Bloomberg report citing French prosecutors’ claims about bribes tied to the US$1.2 billion purchase.
Representing Najib, Messrs Shafee & Co dismissed suggestions that the former prime minister had benefited from the deal or played any unlawful role in its negotiation.
The legal team said the Bloomberg report itself referenced a 2024 French court filing noting “no evidence that shows he received any of those payments”, allegedly meant to remunerate Malaysian officials involved in the defence procurement.
window.googletag = window.googletag || {cmd: []};googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.defineSlot('/22826383987/dailyexpress_inline', [1, 1], 'gpt-passback').addService(googletag.pubads());googletag.enableServices();googletag.display('gpt-passback');});“French prosecutors have not recommended that our client stand trial, nor has any indictment been sought against him,” they said in a statement today.
“In these circumstances, the article raises no issue of liability for our client, and any insinuation to the contrary is without factual foundation.”
Bloomberg reported that French financial prosecutors alleged last year that Najib had attended meetings with defence company executives to arrange contracts ahead of the Scorpene submarine deal in 2002.
They claimed that the contracts were structured to benefit local decision-makers, including Najib’s then-adviser, Abdul Razak Baginda.
A classified document cited in the report asserted that the contracts were designed to remunerate Najib and others.
The allegation came to light as part of a summary by French financial prosecutors of a wider case involving French defence firm Thales SA and DCN International, an entity that’s now part of Paris-based Naval Group.
Najib’s legal team also dismissed the claim that French investigators were blocked by the former prime minister’s “influence”, noting that subsequent administrations since 2018 have had full access to defence ministry records, yet no documents implicating him have ever surfaced.
The lawyers also said that Najib’s participation in procurement talks was part of his official duties and that portraying it as misconduct “absent any proof of personal enrichment or unlawful directive” was a “mischievous insinuation designed to mislead public opinion”.
“For these reasons, we regard the Bloomberg story as a non-issue so far as Najib’s legal position is concerned,” they said.
Najib, 71, is currently serving a reduced prison sentence for charges tied to the SRC International case.
He is seeking to complete the remainder of his sentence under home detention.