Najib Spent RM1.18 Million Over 3 Days At Trump's Hotel When He Was PM
Najib and his entourage were among officials from six nations who spent lavishly during their visit to Washington.
By Sabrina Zainal — 16 Nov 2022, 07:00 PM
Former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak reportedly spent at least USD259,724 (RM1.18 million) at one of former US president Donald Trump's hotels in 2017
According to a US congressional committee investigation, the extravagant amount was spent on the now convicted criminal and his entourage during their visit to the White House in September that year.
Over the course of three days, Najib personally racked up USD44,562 (RM203,000) on the hotel's presidential suite, which apparently cost USD10,000 (RM45,650) per night, the committee said. This amount included USD8,000 (RM36,520) or more for in-room lunches and an additional USD1,500 (RM6,800) for a personal trainer.
At the time of the visit, the US Department of Justice was investigating Najib and his family for "looting a Malaysian sovereign wealth fund and laundering the money through US financial institutions", the report added.
The documents, released on Monday, 14 November, said that Malaysia was one of six nations that splurged more than USD750,000 (RM3.42 million) at the Trump International Hotel
The report by the House Oversight Committee, which obtained documents from Trump's former accounting firm, Mazars USA, also revealed that these six countries — Malaysia, China, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkiye, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) — "were seeking to influence American foreign policy" during their stay.
Officials from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE were found to have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars at the Trump Hotel in 2017 and 2018. Meanwhile, China's embassy was said to have spent nearly USD20,000 (RM91,000) there two months before Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping met.
The records were gathered by the committee to determine whether Trump distorted US foreign policy to serve his own financial interests
According to Representative Carolyn Maloney, a Democrat from New York who chairs the committee, the documents "sharply call into question the extent to which (former) president Trump was guided by his personal financial interest while in office rather than the best interests of the American people".
"These documents, which the Committee continues to obtain from Mazars, will inform our legislative efforts to ensure that future presidents do not abuse their position of power for personal gain," she said.
The Trump Organization sold the Trump International Hotel in Washington to an investor group in May 2022 for a reported USD375 million (RM1.7 billion), reported South China Morning Post.
