Malaysian PM's wife to be quizzed over graft claims: report

The widely despised wife of Malaysia's toppled prime minister will be questioned next week over a massive financial scandal that helped topple the former regime, state media reported today.

Rosmah Mansor was unpopular due to her imperious manner and reported love of going on costly overseas shopping jaunts at a time middle-class Malaysians were struggling with rising living costs.

Corruption allegations swirling around her and her husband Najib Razak played a major part in the shock defeat of Najib's long-ruling coalition at elections last month to a reformist alliance.

The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) has summoned her to give a statement on Tuesday morning to assist in its probe into SRC International, state-run news agency Bernama reported.

SRC was an energy company that was a subsidiary of scandal-hit sovereign wealth fund 1MDB.

Najib, his family and cronies are accused of stealing billions of dollars from 1MDB in a sophisticated fraud that stretched from the Cayman Islands to Switzerland.

A summons was handed to Rosmah at her sprawling Kuala Lumpur home, and several MACC officers were seen leaving the residence, Bernama reported. MACC did not respond to requests to comment.

Since his defeat, Najib has been questioned twice over SRC. He and 1MDB deny any wrongdoing.

According to an investigation by the Wall Street Journal, 42 million ringgit (USD 10.6 million) originating from SRC was transferred to Najib's personal bank accounts, just one small part of the graft scandal.

During raids on properties linked to Najib and Rosmah after the election, police seized over 400 handbags and a huge stash of jewels and cash.