Malaysia’s Ismail Sabri denies failing to declare millions in cash, gold bars

Malaysia’s former prime minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob pleaded not guilty in a Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court on Thursday to failing to declare millions of ringgit in local and foreign currencies and gold bars.
The 66-year-old is the second ex-leader to face criminal charges since Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim took office in 2022, pledging to root out entrenched corruption.
Ismail Sabri’s charge under Section 36(2) of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Act comes more than a year after he was named as a suspect in a sprawling corruption and money-laundering investigation involving government publicity spending during his administration.
According to the charge, Ismail Sabri allegedly gave a written statement in February 2025 that failed to comply with an MACC notice requiring him to declare specified assets.
Those assets, valued at close to US$40 million, were 14.77 million ringgit, S$6.13 million, US$1.46 million, 3 million Swiss francs, €12.16 million, 363 million yen, £50,250, NZ$44,600, 34.75 million UAE dirhams and A$352,850, as well as five Suisse fine gold bars.

If convicted, the MP for the central constituency of Bera faces up to five years in prison and a maximum fine of 100,000 ringgit (US$25,000).
Sessions Court judge Suzana Hussin granted Ismail Sabri bail of 300,000 ringgit with one surety, rejecting the prosecution’s proposed 500,000 ringgit bail and request for his passport to be surrendered, local media reported.
His lawyer, Amer Hamzah Arshad, said the defence argued that the proposed bail was “manifestly excessive” and that confiscating his passport would have been punitive.
“There is no necessity for his passport to be surrendered. He has proven himself not to be a flight risk, and there is no evidence to show that he is a flight risk,” Amer told reporters after the hearing. “He is here to clear his name.”
The court fixed September 29 for the next hearing.
‘Unprecedented’ prosecution
Amer said the defence team was studying the charge and had raised concerns in court about its “propriety and legality”, adding that they could apply to challenge it. The defence is focusing in part on earlier forfeiture proceedings involving assets seized during the MACC investigation.
A Sessions Court last year ordered more than 169 million ringgit in cash linked to Ismail Sabri and his former political secretary to be forfeited after neither man contested the prosecution’s application and no third party came forward to claim the money. The forfeiture was made under Section 41(1) of the MACC Act, a provision dealing with property where prosecution for an offence has not been instituted.
As part of the proceedings, prosecutors indicated they would not be pursuing any charges, Amer said. “The fact that there is suddenly a change of heart by the prosecution is something that we have to look into. That is why we say it is unprecedented. This situation has never arisen before.”
He declined to elaborate on whether that constituted an agreement not to prosecute Ismail Sabri but said the circumstances were “very peculiar”. “We will definitely take the necessary action to challenge the validity and propriety of the charge,” he said.
Thursday’s proceedings had originally been scheduled for August 7 but were postponed after Ismail Sabri was admitted to the National Heart Institute with an abnormal heart rhythm and was fitted with a pacemaker.

Ismail Sabri is the latest senior politician to be caught in the MACC’s dragnet, and the second former prime minister to be brought before the courts under Anwar’s watch.
His predecessor, Muhyiddin Yassin, was charged in 2023 with four counts of abusing his position to obtain bribes totalling 232.5 million ringgit for his Bersatu party, and three counts of money laundering involving 200 million ringgit into his party’s accounts.
Another ex-prime minister, Najib Razak, is already serving a prison sentence for corruption. He was handed a further 15-year jail term last December after being convicted of abuse of power and money laundering involving 2.3 billion ringgit in funds linked to plagued state investment fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad.
In a rare coincidence, all three were at the Kuala Lumpur court complex on Thursday for different hearings.
Prosecutors also went after prominent tycoon and former finance minister Daim Zainuddin and his wife, Naimah Khalid. Both were charged in January 2024 with failing to declare their assets as part of the MACC’s investigation into revelations of their family’s offshore holdings from the 2021 Pandora Papers.
Following his death in November 2024, Daim was acquitted of all charges. Naimah, who continues to face charges, and her family have maintained that the crackdown was “frivolous, malicious and politically motivated”, accusing Anwar of seeking revenge against his political enemies.
Daim was widely seen as a close adviser to two-time former leader Mahathir Mohamad, who in 1998 sacked Anwar as his deputy and later saw to his jailing on charges of corruption and sodomy. Anwar and his supporters have maintained that the charges were politically motivated and aimed at ending his political career.