KUALA LUMPUR (April 14): The police claimed that a majority of the 12,000 jewellery items seized during its raid on Pavillion Residences Kuala Lumpur after the 14th general election had been returned to Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor or her representatives, the High Court heard on Tuesday.
Assistant commissioner of police (ACP) Foo Wei Min, who is with the Anti-Money Laundering (AMLA) Investigation Division in Bukit Aman, said that out of a total of 12,009 jewellery worth about RM443,319,206.90 seized from the raid, as many as 11,985 items have been returned.
The 51-year-old police officer testified that 9,554 items were returned to Rosmah's representative, Datuk Akbar Abdul Gafoor from Messr Azamudin & Co, in April 2022, while 2,431 pieces were returned to another one of Rosmah's representative, Azamuddin Abd Aziz, in December 2022.
The luxury items returned in April were subsequent to directions from the attorney general, while the items handed over in December were following the dismissal of the prosecutor's forfeiture application by the High Court.
Foo was testifying in international jeweller Global Royalty Trading SAL's US$14.57 million (RM68.3 million) lawsuit against Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor over 43 pieces of jewellery which are allegedly missing following the 2018 raid.
Rosmah, the sole defendant, has roped in the inspector general of police (IGP) and the government as third parties to the suit. She contends that if the jewellery pieces were missing, the authorities should be made responsible for the losses as the items were in their possession at all material times.
Should the wife of former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak lose the suit, the IGP and the police will have to foot the bill to compensate and/or contribute to the reliefs sought by the jeweller.
On Tuesday, the law enforcer added that one piece of jewellery had been returned to Global Royalty Trading, while 23 pieces of jewellery were still in the police's possession, awaiting further forfeiture proceedings.
However, Rosmah's counsel Rajivan Nambiar contended that, among others, there is no proof that the 2,431 pieces were returned as claimed.
Foo was the main money-laundering investigator in Najib’s 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB)-Tanore trial, where the High Court found the former prime minister guilty of misappropriating RM 2.2 billion of 1MDB funds. Najib is appealing.
Foo also stressed that the authorities did not fail or neglect to safekeep the jewellery.
Addressing the suggestion that his testimony was an after-thought, Foo retorted: " I [have been] investigating [1MDB] since 2018. It's still a nightmare. I still have to pick-up [fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho] Jho Low.
"[This] is not an afterthought," he said.
The trial before judge Quay Chew Soon continues on Wednesday.
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