Najib Razak Former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak has been arrested by anti-corruption authorities and is due to be charged on Wednesday, report agencies.
Mr Najib, who has long been plagued by allegations of corruption, has been accused of pocketing $700m (£517m) from state development fund 1MDB.
Billions of dollars are unaccounted for from the fund, set up by Mr Najib. He has been under investigation since his shock election loss in May. Mr Najib denies wrongdoing.
According to a statement by the 1MDB special task force, Mr Najib was arrested at 14:35 local time (06:35 GMT) at his house in relation to matters dealing with SRC, a subsidiary of 1MDB.
He will be charged at 08:30 on Wednesday at the Kuala Lumpur High Court.
Raids in recent weeks have been carried out across properties linked to Mr Najib.
Police say they recovered $273m in luxury goods and cash from a raid in June, calling the seizure of valuables the biggest in Malaysian history.
Jewellery accounted for the biggest portion of the seizure, with the most expensive item being a $1.6m diamond and gold necklace.
Mr Najib has always denied the corruption charges and had been cleared by Malaysian authorities while in power, but he is being investigated by several other countries.
He has been banned from leaving Malaysia.
1MDB, set up by Mr Najib in 2009, was meant to turn Kuala Lumpur into a financial hub and boost the economy through strategic investments.
But it started to attract negative attention in early 2015 after it missed payments for some of the $11bn it owed to banks and bondholders.
Then the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported it had seen a paper trail that allegedly traced close to $700m from the fund to Mr Najib's personal bank accounts.
Mr Najib has consistently denied taking money from 1MDB or any public funds.
The 92-year old Mahathir said in an interview with Reuters last month that embezzlement and bribery with government money were among the charges that Malaysia was looking to bring against Najib, 64, adding they had "an almost perfect case" against him.
Najib's arrest was in relation to a probe into SRC International, a former 1MDB unit, a task force investigating the fund said on Tuesday.
One source close to Najib's family said he was expected to be charged with abuse of power at SRC.
Anti-graft agents picked up Najib from his home after serving him with a remand order, sources close to the family said.
A Najib spokesman did not immediately have a comment and Najib has consistently denied wrongdoing.
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