FORMER prime minister Najib Razak has hired Karv Communications – a New York based media relations company – as the US media zeroes in on the trial of former Goldman Sachs banker Roger Ng, accused of taking kickbacks to facilitate the looting of sovereign wealth fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).

Quoting a spokesperson for the media relations firm, US based news portal Politico reported that Karv will serve as a subcontractor to Najib’s US attorney, Tania Scivetti, for an initial period of two months.

It added that according to the Department of Justice filings, Karv will receive US$140, 000 (RM585,000) for two months of work.

Scivetti is the wife of lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, who is currently leading Najib’s defence his 1MDB cases in Malaysia.

In the ongoing US Federal Court trial in New York, Ng is accused of conspiring with Tim Leissner – Ng’s former boss at Goldman Sachs – and fugitive financier Low Taek Jho to violate US anti-money-laundering laws.

Leissner, now the prosecution’s star witness, pleaded guilty in 2018 to helping Low loot billions of dollars from 1MDB, leaving Ng the only Goldman banker to stand trial over the scandal.

Goldman Sachs helped 1MDB raise US$6.5 billion in bonds and received US$600 million in fees for its service.

Meanwhile in 2019, Krav Communications was also hired by Saudi Investment Fund to try to distance the fund from the country’s embattled crown prince Mohamad bin Salman as it seeks to overhaul the company.

According to Al-Monitor, a Washington based news portal, the fund’s managing director Yasir al Rumayyan signed a US$120,000 a month contract with the firm.

It was said that the firm was tasked with providing “investor and public relations advice and counsel by providing outreach and relationship-building to various stakeholders in business and the media.

Najib was found guilty in July 2020 of all seven criminal charges for having received RM42 million in funds from SRC International.

Najib was convicted on three counts of criminal breach of trust, three counts of money-laundering and one count of abuse of power.

The 68-year-old Pekan MP was sentenced to 12 years’ in prison and fined RM210 million by Kuala Lumpur High Court judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali.

In December last year, Court of Appeal judge Abdul Karim Abdul Jalil, leading a three-man panel alongside Has Zanah Mehat and Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera, unanimously agreed with the trial judge’s verdict, rejecting Muhammad Shafee Abdullah’s attempt to discredit Nazlan. – March 9, 2022.