(May 21): In relation to your enquiries, we have considered the Bloomberg report dated May 20, 2025 "French Prosecutors Claim Najib Had Role in 2002 Submarine Deal Bribes". On the face of that article and the underlying 2024 French court filing it cites, the following points are clear:
- The funds said to be “designed to remunerate Malaysian public decision-makers” are not linked to our client, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, and the article itself states that “no evidence shows he received any of those payments”.
- French prosecutors have not recommended that he stand trial or sought any indictment against him.
In these circumstances the article raises no issue of liability for our client, and any insinuation to the contrary is without factual foundation.
Secondly, the suggestion that French investigators were thwarted from obtaining Malaysian documents because of our client’s putative “influence” is both speculative and illogical. Since 2018 Malaysia has had three successive administrations, each politically adverse to him; during that period the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission and multiple parliamentary committees have enjoyed unfettered access to Ministry of Defence records and other relevant sources. No document implicating Najib has ever been produced, because none exists.
Finally, the article revisits his presence during submarine-procurement negotiations in 2002. As the minister of defence, leading such discussions was an inherent and legally mandated part of his duties. To re-cast a ministerial role as evidence of wrongdoing — absent any proof of personal enrichment or unlawful directive — is not merely baseless; it is 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.
Messrs Shafee & Co
On behalf of Datuk Seri Najib Razak