A Malaysian court on Friday found Najib Razak guilty on multiple charges of abuse of power and money laundering tied to multibillion-dollar looting of the Malaysia Development Berhad, better known as the 1MDB investment fund.
Najib was sentenced to 15 years in prison and fined 13.5 billion ringgit ($2.8 billion or €2.4 billion) after being convicted.
The jailed former prime minister has offered an apology for mishandling the scandal but consistently denied any other wrongdoing, insisting he had been misled by fund officials and fugitive businessman Jho Low, once considered a close associate of Najib.
On Friday, the judge reading the verdict noted the "unmistakable bond" between Najib and Low.
"It must be appreciated that the accused... stood at the very apex of the decision-making process with regard to matters in 1MDB," Judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah said.
"To entertain the belief that officers subordinate to him in the hierarchy would willingly and knowingly conspire against a sitting prime minister of the day, together with Jho Low who did not even hold an official position in 1MDB, would be to stretch the imagination into the realms of pure fantasy."
Investigators have claimed Najib received hundreds of millions of dollars from 1MDB.
The court also dismissed the narrative presented by Najib's defense, which insisted that the defendant believed funds in his account were donations from the Saudi royal family. Judge Sequerah noted that Najib, while serving as prime minister, would have had all the necessary resources to verify this claim.
The ruling could have far-reaching political consequences. It is likely to test the survival of the ruling coalition led by current Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, which also includes Najib's UMNO party.
Najib is already serving time for charges linked to the theft of billions from 1MDB. He was due to leave jail in 2028 after his original 12-year term was cut in half.
Tensions within the coalition had already risen this week when a Malaysian court denied Najib's bid to serve the remainder of his sentence at home. Multiple UMNO leaders decried the decision and complained about Anwar's supporters celebrating the ruling.
On Monday, UMNO youth leader Akmal Saleh called on his party to break the coalition and serve as "dignified opposition" instead.
Prime Minister Anwar has insisted that he does not interfere with Malaysia's judiciary. At the same time, Anwar — who campaigned on an anti-corruption platform — is also facing pressure from his own camp over the acquittal of Najib's wife Rosmah Mansor.
Najib launched 1MDB in 2009, when he assumed office, to promote economic development and investment.
But senior officials and their associates ended up stealing more than $4.5 billion (€3.84 billion) from the fund between 2009 and 2013, according to the US Justice Department. The money was laundered through layers of bank accounts in the United States and other countries.
Much of that money ended up in Najib's bank accounts.
The affair also involved Goldman Sachs, which raised billions for the fund. Two of its former bankers ended up in prison after facing charges of bribing officials, giving false statements to authorities, and misappropriating funds.
The 1MDB scheme is considered one of the largest corruption and embezzlement scandals in living memory.
Edited by Louis Oelofse, Dmytro Hubenko