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This thief is in Kajang Prison where he belongs. - Facebook image
And Umno continues to defend a convicted kleptocrat/thief/pencuri …
KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 13, 2026: No News Is Bad News reproduces below a NYPOST.COM feature on Malaysia’s No. 1 kleptocrat/thief/pencuri, the corrupt, disgraced and shameless former Umno president and prime minister Najib “1MDB” Razak.
While the concvicted kleptocrat is now serving his jail sentence in Kajang Prison, Umno continues to shamelessly lobby for the pencuri to be freed on house arrest (also read as backdoor freedom).
That’s Umno for you and its demi rakyat dan negara (for people and country) bluff! Phui!
exclusive
Kimora Lee Simmons refusing to leave $25M mansion bought by disgraced husband, funded by massive global fraud
By
Published Feb. 11, 2026, 1:19 p.m. ET
Entrepreneur and reality TV star Kimora Lee Simmons has spent around five years living in a legally contested $25 million Beverly Hills mansion purchased by her estranged husband with money he stole from 1MDB — a Malaysian sovereign wealth fund at the heart of one of the world’s largest multibillion-dollar frauds in history, The Post can reveal.
Simmons has not made mortgage or rent payments in that time, per court docs, and she’s allegedly refusing to vacate the house.
She is claiming that her estranged husband, disgraced banker Tim Leissner, sold the property fraudulently and without authority to real estate moguls the Reuben brothers.
The seven-bedroom estate, which sits on 3.7 acres in the heart of Beverly Hills, can be seen, at least from the outside, in her current reality show, “Kimora: Back in the Fab Lane”.
But what will happen to the property remains unclear as the legal dispute enters its fifth year.
The ongoing civil dispute over possession, title and liability stems from the distressed refinancing and sale-leaseback of the luxury property.
A trial-setting conference is slated for Feb. 25. (Leissner has yet to comment, or actively participate in the case, although he was personally served in New York on Aug. 14.)
It all comes as Leissner, a German national, surrendered to federal prison in Allentown, Pennsylvania, on Feb. 6 — eight years after he pleaded guilty for his role in the $4.5 billion fraud. Simmons has also been in the news, promoting her show.
Tim Leissner and Kimora Lee Simmons in 2015.AP
An aerial of the Beverly Hills estate, whose footprint is massive.RAFAEL FONTOURA/CALIFORNIA POST
In 2022, Leissner testified under oath that he bought the property, at 25 Beverly Park Circle, with $25 million that had been stolen from the Malaysian people.
He gave the testimony as the government’s star witness in the criminal trial of his former Goldman Sachs colleague Roger Ng in federal court in Brooklyn. Ng is currently serving a 10-year jail sentence for his role. There is no evidence or suggestion that Simmons was involved in 1MDB.
No one disputes that the $25 million Beverly Hills home was bought with stolen 1MDB money in 2017.
But the fact that Leissner did not have to forfeit the mansion is unusual — and it leaves the door open for Malaysia to demand it back from its current owners, along with any other assets that Leissner bought with stolen money, sources told The Post. And he has quite a few.
The massive fraud began in 2009 with the creation of a Malaysian sovereign wealth fund, 1Malaysia Development Berhad. Within days, $700 million had been siphoned out of it. That year, a Wharton dropout named Jho Low — described by US and international investigators and prosecutors as the fraud’s architect — began buying trophy real estate in Manhattan with stolen cash and throwing money around New York City clubs.
The Post was the first publication to mention Low by name, pointing out his high-rolling ways, which caught the eye of investigators, sources later told The Post.
Low, who remains a fugitive, maintains his innocence but gave up around $700 million in assets to the DOJ without admitting guilt. He still faces criminal charges in the Eastern District of New York for money laundering and Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations, and in DC for illegal campaign contributions.
But “if Low was 1MDB’s architect, Leissner was its engineer,” another source told The Post.
Simmons at a gala in LA earlier this month.Getty Images
Malaysia’s former Prime Minister Najib Razak and his wife, Rosmah Mansor, in 2017.AFP via Getty Images
No one disputes that the $25 million Beverly Hills home was bought with stolen 1MDB money, as per Leissner’s 2022 testimony.RAFAEL FONTOURA/CALIFORNIA POST
The six-year fraud — which benefited Malaysia’s then-Prime Minister Najib Razak, Low and others — was ultimately investigated by 10 different countries. And Leissner was arrested for his part in June 2018.
As the judge in Ng’s case said, “Leissner admitted to efforts to move and hide assets, including ownership of his entities like Keyway [the holding company for the Beverly Hills mansion] out of apparent concern the US government would seek to disgorge the Property as restitution.”
The Beverly Hills home is also unusual because other trophy real estate assets bought with stolen 1MDB cash have been seized — like Low’s New York and LA properties, including a $30.55 million condo on Columbus Circle.
Another penthouse, in Walker Tower at 212 W. 18th St., was bought for a record $51 million purchase in 2014 by Khadem al Qubaisi, who who was implicated in the fraud and is now in prison. The property was seized and sold by the US government for a paltry $18 million in 2020.
Celebrities who were gifted pricey assets bought with stolen 1MDB money were also asked by the US government to return them in a record civil asset forfeiture case, and they did — mostly.
Malaysian police’s Amar Singh, in Kuala Lumpur on June 27, 2018, shows a photo of items seized from six premises linked to ousted Malaysian leader Najib Razak, including cash, a vast stash of jewelry and luxury handbags. The goods were worth up to $273 million, police said.AFP via Getty Images
Another image of the seized items.AFP via Getty Images
To date, the government has successfully recovered and repatriated around $1.4 billion to Malaysia — the largest recovery in DOJ history.
Leonardo DiCaprio, for example, returned a Picasso and a Basquiat worth a combined $12.2 million and Marlon Brando’s Oscar, worth $600,000, all gifted to him by Low with 1MDB money.
But Simmons’ home remains an outlier — and is now the subject of this messy court case.
Leissner claimed in court in Ng’s 2022 trial that he sold his assets to Newland, a Hong Kong-based company.
But sources say Newland may have been a front company.
In November 2020, Leissner’s LLC, Keyway Pride, held by Newland, sold the Beverly Hills property to the billionaire brothers and real estate moguls David Reuben and Simon Reuben, after interest on a $12 million mortgage he had taken out to cover “living expenses” was not paid, according to a source with knowledge of the deal. The Reuben brothers declined to comment.
As part of the deal, Leissner and Simmons were also to pay $67,000 a month to continue to live in the property, according to court documents.
However, Simmons “has been [living] there since November 2020 and no rent has been paid to date,” a source with knowledge of the deal told The Post.
While Simmons later challenged the sale and leaseback of the property, in October 2020 she allegedly signed a Keyway resolution authorizing it, although she says her signature was procured through misrepresentation and abuse of trust by Leissner, according to the defendants’ complaint, filed in January 2021 — two months after the home sold to the Reuben brothers.
Simmons and Leissner have a son, who’s now 10.WireImage
Simmons’ lawyers and reps did not return requests for comment, nor did Leissner’s lawyer. In court testimony in the Ng case, Leissner said he continued to reside in the home after his 2018 arrest — he and Simmons have a 10-year-old son — but did not specify when he left.
The estranged couple no longer live together, sources say, adding that neither Leissner nor Simmons “have paid a penny” to live there.
In January 2021, Simmons filed a lawsuit in a Beverly Hills court. The ongoing case is between cross-defendants and plaintiffs Keyway Pride, Leissner and Simmons; and cross-plaintiffs and defendants 25 Beverly Park Circle Propco LLC, Cantervale Limited and Chicago Title Company.
Simmons, on her reality show, displays a massive collection of designer handbags.E!
She has nearly 700, including Birkins.E!
Rosmah Mansor.AFP via Getty Images
In the lawsuit, Simmons claimed that the new owners of the house — the Reuben brothers — illegally bought the Beverly Hills house, because it was bought without her permission.
None of this drama, however, is part of Simmons’ new reality show, “Kimora: Back in the Fab Lane,” which features at least the exterior of the Beverly Hills home. In a clip promoting the E! reality series, she says: “My name is Kimora and I am a hoarder — but a luxury hoarder,” as she shows off her collection of 698 luxury handbags.
Simmons once posted on social media about her friendship with Rosmah Mansor, the diamond-collecting, handbag-stockpiling wife of ex-Prime Minister Najib. Mansor has been compared to Imelda Marcos for the way she amasses luxury goods bought with stolen money. Simmons’ handbag collection is even larger than Mansor’s — although there is no suggestion Simmons’ was bought with stolen money.
That was not the case for Mansor. In May 2018, police seized her collection of 567 luxury handbags, shortly after Najib’s coalition lost the general election. Police were seen loading five trucks with orange Hermès boxes. Many of the handbags were ultimately returned; others were auctioned by the government, according to reports. - NYPOST.COM
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