A CLOSE associate of Prime Minister Najib Razak has been charged in France over alleged kickbacks in the 2002 sale of submarines to Malaysia, a judicial source told AFP today.

Abdul Razak Baginda advised Najib when the prime minister was defence minister between 2000 and 2008.

Najib oversaw the deal, worth nearly €1 billion (RM5 billion), to buy two Scorpene-class submarines and one Agosta-class submarine from French naval dockyards unit DCN, which is linked to French defence group Thales.

An investigation into the deal was launched in 2010, in response to a complaint from Malaysian rights group Suaram.

As part of the deal, DCN agreed to pay €30 million to Thales’ Asian unit, Thales International Asia (Thint Asia).

The investigation revealed that another company, Terasasi, whose main shareholder was Razak, received an equivalent sum for what was billed as consultancy work, but which investigators believe was really a front for kickbacks.

Razak was charged in France on July 18 with “active and passive complicity in corruption” and “misappropriation of corporate assets”, the French judicial source said.

Four French defence industry executives have been charged since the investigation began.

They are two former chairmen of DCNI, Philippe Japiot and Dominique Castellan, and two former heads of Thint Asia, Bernard Baiocco and Jean-Paul Perrier.

All four men deny the charges against them.

French investigators are also looking into allegations that €114 million was paid to a purported Malaysia-based shell company, Perimekar, as part of the deal.

That company was controlled, at the time, by Razak’s wife.

However, that payment is likely to ultimately fall outside the jurisdiction of the investigation because it was not made to a French company.

The affair emerged spectacularly in 2006, when Razak’s Mongolian mistress, who was said to have demanded a pay-off for working as a language translator in the deal, was shot dead and her body blown up with plastic explosives near Kuala Lumpur.

A Malaysian court later cleared Razak of abetting the murder, sparking an outcry and opposition allegations of a cover-up.

Najib is currently embroiled in a money-laundering scandal involving state investor 1Malaysia Development Berhad, which he founded. – AFP, August 1, 2017.