Her husband has been jailed for the world’s largest recorded theft and now Rosmah herself has been hit with what must be the largest recorded fine against a woman in history –  just under a BILLION RINGGIT!

Even more awful is the fact that everyone in Malaysia knows only too well that she can easily afford that money and more.

After all, when police raided the couple’s lock-up right after their unexpected loss in 2018 they discovered a staggering RM170 million just knocking around the place in loose change (not counting the hundreds of millions of dollars worth of valuables, handbags and the like).

Covering the story of this couple’s corruption over the past decade Sarawak Report received endless jaw-dropping details about how Rosmah operated their massive money laundering operation, out of their home with people arriving daily with suitcases of cash to plead their case.

If the price was right, Najib over in the Prime Minister’s office would sign off on whatever deal they were pressing for… on instructions from Rosmah back at base.

So much for this lady weeping in the dock to complain she is now ‘forced to do a man’s job in the home’ now that Najib has been removed to jail. She always ‘wore the pants’, as anyone who has listened to her recorded berating of her husband as the 1MDB scandal closed in can testify: “Can I ADVISE YOU!” has become a Malaysian catchphrase for the overbearing spouse.

The couple kept a room in their house with safes up one wall, separated for different currencies to process the simply enormous turnover. Bodyguards, advisors and servants were then tasked with the unenviable job of lugging suitcases stuffed with notes from time to time into various accounts.

But, of course, as we all know the major bulk of the illicit earnings of this kleptocratic couple was processed abroad using bogus off-shore accounts into which billions of ringgit of public money (conveniently transferred into dollars or euros) would be pumped in the name of paying for ‘defence contracts’, ‘overseas investments’ and the like.

We know the signature ruse by now: these accounts would shield under a cloned name almost identical to that of the company the prime minister was pretending to be doing business for on behalf of the people of Malaysia.

Merryl (BVI), Aabar (Seychelles), Alizes Marine (Labuan), Blackstone Asia Real Estate Partners (BVI), PetroSaudi (Cayman): the list is endless. None of these companies belonged to the ownership structure of the identically named companies that invoices might be drawn from, but it was to the bank accounts of these outfits that money would be sent and then on to fuel the lavish lifestyles of Rosmah and Najib, their family and all their flunkies.

The UMNO elite have dined off the crumbs and, worse, they have watched and copied. The bigger sharks were the close henchmen around this couple, far too few of whom are presently facing their own court cases and likely convictions if the Malaysian courts can uphold their independence.

The saddest outcome is how this canker has spread on downwards to even the lowliest of officials, police and other law enforcers who have started to view their jobs not as one of service but as an opportunity to exploit and abuse their position to predate on their fellow citizens instead of protecting and serving them.

Sarawak Report has viewed private pictures showing how the disgraceful couple wined and luxurated on their super-yacht holidays, champagne flowing. Those in possession of those revealing pictures wanted money however to release them. It was what they had been taught by all this graft and it was a system that has protected the criminally wealthy in Malaysia for far too long.

However, in the end, a rotten structure will collapse.  Now that the tumour that is Najib and Rosmah has been excised, Malaysia has its opportunity to clear up its secondary cancers and re-imbue its people with strong values to uphold their nation.

The damage that has been done through all this senseless graft needs little description for those Malaysians outside the magic circle whose lives have been burdened with so much hardship that could so well have been avoided.

The hundreds of millions that went to waste from a project designed to bring power to Sarawak’s schools – the very case that has now landed Rosmah with her fine and ten year sentence – is emblematic.

The project went to the wrong company at the wrong price, thanks to the over-ruling of civil servants and the tendering rules of the Education Department by an interfering prime minister on the directions of his wife who had taken bribe and was planning to extract a massive chunk of money from the completely unqualified contractors who had wheedled into her ear.

That was how Malaysia was being run from start to finish by 2018 and still to a large extent is run, given the same political party is now back in office and championing to protect this pair.

Back in Sarawak despite the hundreds of millions in public money spent the project has, inevitably, failed and instead of improved power schools are now suffering from outages and barely any power at all.

The same state, has just this week been forced to re-tender no less than twenty other public projects that have together wasted billions in public cash for the exact same reasons – graft by a ruling kleptocracy that has been topped by the people at the top.

In the case of Rosmah justice has been done. The sad picture she now presents is merely a deep reminder that massive wealth brings the bearer anything but beauty, peace of mind and happiness.