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Malaysia's former Prime Minister, Najib Razak, is back in the news after being found guilty in the sprawling 1MDB corruption scandal.
It's World Business Express from the BBC World Service.
I am Busi Adibayo.
Japan is opening the taps on public spending, approving its biggest budget ever.
And in Nigeria, debt in December is turning into serious business, bringing in millions of dollars.
Happy Boxing Day, everyone.
We start in Malaysia, where former Prime Minister Najib Razak has been found guilty of abuse of power and money laundering as part of the country's biggest ever corruption scandal.
He was accused of siphoning off millions of dollars from the state fund 1MTB.
Jonathan Josephs is our world business reporter, and he told me more.
These verdicts have come from Malaysia's high court in Putrajaya.
And Najib Razak, the former prime minister of Malaysia, has been found guilty of four counts of abuse of power and 21 of money laundering.
These all relate to around 560 million dollars that was illegally transferred, according to prosecutors in this case.
Now, this is money that is linked to the one mdb sovereign wealth fund.
It's a scandal that has rocked malaysia for about a decade now, and it means that mr najib is facing yet more jail time.
He's already been in prison since 2022, having been found guilty of receiving millions of dollars from the fund.
He's always denied any wrongdoing in all these accusations, and he says the charges against him were politically motivated and that they were a witch hunt.
And what's the mood in Malaysia right now with today's judgment?
Well, I think we're going to see a split along party political lines, because Mr Najib's political party has had to work with rival parties to govern the country recently.
And they've been trying to manage relations to keep each other sweet.
But with this verdict, it's quite a damning fall from grace for a man who was prime minister, who comes from a political dynasty where his father and his uncle were both prime minister, two of Malaysia's founding fathers.
So this really does mark a new chapter, given the seriousness of these verdicts today.
But there's still plenty more to come in this one MDB scandal, one suspects.
The BBC's Jonathan Joseph's there.
Now, beyond tariffs.
One of the Trump administration's big policy shifts was extending or ending the tax exemption on parcels worth over 800, known as the de minimis rule.
The change caused immediate disruption for small exporters around the world.
So what's the picture now four months on?
William Lee Adams has more.
Until August, anyone could send a parcel to the United States tariff-free, so long as the value of the item was less than 800.
Businesses from around the world took advantage of the rule.
Almost 14 billion packages entered the US duty-free last year, with two of China's largest online retailers, Xi'an and Timu, each sending hundreds of millions of parcels to the states annually.
The de minimis rule found itself in the sights of President Trump.
It's a big scam going on against our country, against really small businesses.
U.S.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick explained why the tax exemption had to go.
Foreign countries were sending in little packages for free and knocking out our mom and pop businesses across America.
The most immediate impact was on businesses outside of the U.S.
Here's Jess Van Dan, a jewelry maker based in Australia.
30 to 40 percent of my jewelry business was in the U.S.
And now I've had to stop that entire part of my business.
And I'm not the only one.
In removing the tax exemption, the White House said it wanted to level the playing field for US companies.
So have they seen a difference since the changes?
Madeline Knutson, who runs a mail order business out of Minot in North Dakota, says she's much more careful about where she buys her products from.
I tend to look where they're shipping from, because that impact has caused us to raise our prices for things.
Since the de minimis exemption was abolished, the number of parcels coming into the US worth less than 800 has fallen by 54 percent.
That's according to the Universal Postal Union, a United Nations agency.
Across the board, prices are just higher.
You know, with a bigger business they're able to like, eat the cost a little bit more to keep it less expensive where we, you know, are just a little like mom and pop shop.
So we can't eat all the extra costs.
As the flow of tax-free goods slows, it seems it may be US producers and customers who are covering the costs.
William Lee Adams reporting there.
Japan is also making headlines today after approving a record budget for the next financial year.
The plan includes $800 billion in spending, with defense funding also hitting a new high.
Well, let's take you to Nigeria now, where debtor December is proving to be big business, a point echoed by Nigerian singer and event co-founder, Dari Ataladei.
Well, 30 December is all about the tunnel.
It's about fun.
It's about celebrating culture, celebrating each other, celebrating family friends love, relationships coming together.
Officials in Lagos say the festive season has already generated more than 71 million so far, helped by concerts, tourism and returning members of the diaspora.
So what does this mean for the wider economy?
Mudo Yusuf is CEO, Center for the Promotion of Private Enterprise.
The impact has been phenomenal, particularly in the cities of Nigeria.
You've got the level of transactions.
You know that happens during 30 December is quite high and it impacts practically, you know, all sectors of the economy.
And speaking of those transactions now, for many Nigerians December typically means higher prices for food, for transport, like you mentioned, accommodation.
So does that take the shine off some of the benefits or economic gains?
Well, not so much, because you know we have very big Diaspora population that comes for this 30 December.
And of course, the spending and all of that, the transactions are forced from level of inflation.
But the capacity to spend is also there.
You know, we have a very weak currency.
And when they come with all this foreign currency, it doesn't matter so much.
So quite a number of inflationary effects.
That was Muda Youssef from the Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise.
Well, let's also hear from one of the businesses cashing in this season.
Remy Adelike is an events producer and CEO of Cruise Events in Lagos.
We start preparing as early as January for the next December, because it's an industry that is still growing.
And if we don't start to prepare in advance, we lose the risk of losing the best hands in terms of equipment rentals, skilled crew, getting the right security firm power generations, things like that.
It's quite interesting that you say you start at the beginning of the year, but what are some of the biggest behind the scenes costs or risks that you have to manage?
We've been in this industry for about 17 years now.
The large-scale concerts and festivals have made the 30th of December quite busy, with the corporate brand activations, private parties, weddings and the experiential events.
But the flip side is that the demand has grown faster than the infrastructure.
Majority of the problem we actually face in this part of the world is actually human resource.
We know how to put things together, but when it comes to dealing with human resources, it's actually an issue here.
So when you talk about difficulty in managing human resources, what do you mean?
The demand for skilled professionals has actually increased dramatically within this very short window of, especially the fact that a lot of concerts and festivals and corporate events are happening at the same time, simultaneously.
For example, during December, a sound engineer or a stage manager might be booked across three or four major events on the same day.
And so he has to manage from running from one venue to the other, because everybody wants to use his expertise, because he's one of the best in town.
And you really don't want to risk using anybody less experienced because you want quality.
And they have to look for a way to manage themselves across board, without even giving you prior notice that they have multiple events.
Remy Adelike, CEO of Cruise Events, bringing us to the end of this edition of World Business Express with me, Bissia Dibayo.
Round off your 2025 with a brilliant podcast from the BBC World Service.
13 Minutes is the podcast telling epic space stories, from the first moon landing to the creation of the Space Shuttle.
Unlike any spacecraft we had ever flown before.
The Con invites you to enter a world where nothing is as it seems.
There was somebody out there who's faking pregnancies.
What does she have to gain from this?
And CyberHack investigates alleged cyber gangs and the heists and hacks they're accused of committing.
The largest cyber criminal case in the FBI.
Search for 13 Minutes, The Con and CyberHack wherever you get your BBC podcasts.
