Malaysian ex-PM’s wife hit with two new graft charges

KUALA LUMPUR: The wife of Malaysia’s toppled ex-leader was hit with two new corruption charges Thursday for allegedly accepting bribes worth 189 million ringgit ($45 million) to help a firm secure a government solar power contract.

Rosmah Mansor — widely reviled in Malaysia due to her penchant for lavish overseas shopping sprees — has already been charged with money laundering and tax evasion related to a billion-dollar scandal that helped topple her husband’s government at polls in May.

Court documents showed the new charges related to Rosmah seeking and receiving payments in connection with a solar project in schools in the eastern state of Sarawak in 2016 and 2017. Rosmah, 66, pleaded not guilty to both charges and was freed on a 1 million ringgit bail. The court will fix the trial dates on December 10. Rosmah, who has already been hit with 17 charges of corruption and money-laundering, had faced fresh questioning by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission on Wednesday. She faces up to 40 years in jail if found guilty of the two new charges. She has pleaded not guilty to all charges against her. In a separate case Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor, a former minister close to Najib, was charged with corruption Thursday for improperly receiving 3 million ringgit related to land deals in 2013 and 2016.

Tengku Adnan pleaded not guilty and was freed on bail. He will reappear in court on December 12 when trial dates will be fixed. Allegations of corruption swirling around Rosmah and her husband, former prime minister Najib Razak, contributed his coalition’s shock election loss in May.

Najib and his cronies are accused of plundering billions of dollars from state investment fund 1MDB to buy up super-yachts, Van Gogh artwork and finance a Hollywood blockbuster. He has also been arrested and hit with a barrage of corruption charges. He denies any wrongdoing.