‘I love the simple lifestyle,’ Najib says in Netflix documentary about Malaysia’s 1MDB scandal

The episode, titled Man at the Top, examines the pilfering of the sovereign wealth fund, and features interviews with the ex-prime minister at home

Meanwhile, as new premier Muhyiddin Yassin installs his new administration, some members of coalition partner Umno have been unhappy over their few numbers in cabinet

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Former Malaysian premier Najib Razak. Photo: Reuters

Published: 7:51pm, 13 Mar 2020Updated: 1:28am, 14 Mar 2020

Embattled former Malaysian premier Najib Razak’s wife Rosmah Mansor was, by his own admission, “a hoarder”, he reveals in a new Netflix documentary on the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) global corruption scandal.

“I mean – like most women – my wife does like to shop, but you tend to accumulate things over a period of time,” he tells interviewers in an episode of Dirty Money, a Netflix original series which investigates corporate corruption, securities fraud and creative accounting.

“I sometimes complain, ‘Don’t keep those things. You are a hoarder. You keep things for a long time. Get rid of them, you know?’” Najib says.

The episode, titled Man at the Top – a direct quote by Najib who once said that people “cannot just blame the man at the top for everything that goes wrong” – examines the 1MDB scandal, which saw billions siphoned out of the sovereign wealth fund and used to fund celebrity parties, buy artwork and bankroll Hollywood films, and also features interviews with Najib himself at home.

The former prime minister says that claims he leads an opulent life have been “widely exaggerated in terms of my lifestyle”.

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