The biggest financial scandal to hit Malaysia is undoubtedly the 1MDB case which involved the then Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak and the countries sovereign wealth fund. Billions were allegedly siphoned for personal and luxury spending by individuals including the PM and his wife Rosmah Mansur.

When the case was brought to light, many of the properties belonging the first wife were seized including millions worth in handbags. Police were reported to be carrying away boxes and boxes of the prized Hermes Birkin bags belonging to the fist lady. Today the High Court was informed that millions of ringgit of certain designer bags had been destroyed due to careless handling of the items.

Lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, representing former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, said the damage to the handbags was realised during an inspection of the items, which were kept in a vault at Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM), by his client.

The inspection was made by Najib, his wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor and their daughter Nooryana Najwa on last Feb 22, in another application.

“There was no respect for the items seized at all…the handbags which they (police) knew are very expensive, have been destroyed by police because they had marked directly on the handbags with magic ink,” he said.

It is claimed the items seized were worth over RM680 million which among them included jewelry, cash and handbags. Rosmah was known to be fond of Hermes Birkin which are reputed to be the most premium in handbags. They could fetch between RM100,000- RM250,000 depending on the model.