No deal for Najib: Tun M

PUTRAJAYA: There will be no compromise for ousted prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak if he is implicated in graft claims linked to state investment fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).
Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad today said prosecutors are building up a strong case against Najib, who is expected to be charged soon for crimes linked to the debt-laden 1MDB.
Asked if he would cut a deal to spare Najib in exchange for information to recover part of the US$4.5 billion (RM18.19 billion) allegedly lost by 1MDB, Mahathir said: "No deal".
However, Mahathir said there was currently a problem of "trying to trust people to investigate him", but the authorities are slowly getting to the of bottom of things.
"Some of these people who were with him had sided with him and we do not know who is going to be loyal to this new government," he said during a video conference with The Wall Street Journal CEO Council Meeting in Tokyo.
"Many senior officers are volunteering information, accompanied of course, by documents. We think that within a short period, we will have a case against him, (and) we will be able to charge him."
He added that a full investigation would be completed before any legal action is taken against Najib.
"We are in the process of getting into details of the matters he suppressed in his time," Mahathir said.
In 2015, The Wall Street Journal reported that US$681 million (RM2.6 billion) of 1MDB funds ended up in Najib's personal accounts, but he and 1MDB denied any wrongdoing.
1MDB is also being probed by authorities in several countries.
Najib and his wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor have been placed on an Immigration blacklist and prevented from leaving the country since the Pakatan Rakyat coalition led by Mahathir swept to power in the recent polls.
As speculation of prompt legal action against Najib continued to mount, former attorney-general Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail met with Mahathir at the Perdana Leadership Foundation here today.
Gani had been leading investigations into the 1MDB scandal before he was abruptly removed from office.
Also meeting Mahathir today was former Special Branch deputy director Datuk Abdul Hamid Bador, who in August 2015 unexpectedly received an order to be transferred out of the police intelligence unit to the Prime Minister's Department, a move he said was likely due to his comments on the 1MDB controversy.
Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Mohamad Fuzi Harun and federal police Commercial Crimes Investigation Department director Comm Datuk Seri Amar Singh were also seen at Mahathir's office today.