Najib's brother owns Virgin Islands company reveals newly-leaked Panama Papers

PETALING JAYA: Newly-leaked documents from Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca reveal that the brother of former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak owns an offshore company registered at the British Virgin Islands.

According to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), which scrutinised the documents, this however does not imply any wrongdoing on his part.

In March 2017, Mossack Fonseca discovered that a company it had registered in the British Virgin Islands was owned by Datuk Mohamed Nizam Abdul Razak (pic), the brother of Malaysia’s former prime minister, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, it said.

According to the ICIJ, the new documents revealed details of “swollen bank accounts and offshore assets of political figures accused of state-wide looting”.

The ICIJ added in a report on Thursday (June 21) that it discovered that Mohamed Nizam was the owner of Everbright Universal Holdings Ltd, which owns properties in the United States.

It added that it had contacted Mohamed Nizam unsuccessfully and said that his Credit Suisse banker did not respond to its emails.

Mohamed Nizam is one of the five sons of the former prime minister Tun Abdul Razak.

He studied politics, philosophy and economics at Oxford University, and was also the CEO of PB Securities Sdn Bhd in the 1990s.

In a report in 2008, Mohamed Nizam was listed as the non-executive director in several publicly listed companies including Hiap Teck Venture Bhd, Mamee Double-Decker (M) Bhd, Delloyd Ventures Bhd and Yeo Hiap Seng (M) Bhd. 

Previously, ICIJ also revealed two offshore companies owned by Najib's son, Mohd Nazifuddin Mohd Najib, which were leaked from the Panama Papers.

Najib's family is under scrutiny as he is embroiled in the scandal-hit 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) state fund, which is currently under investigation.

In an interview with Reuters, Najib claimed his advisors and the management and board of 1MDB, had wrongly kept the alleged embezzlement of funds a secret from him.