KUALA LUMPUR (July 13): As Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor’s solar hybrid graft trial resumes this week, it has emerged that a consultant who purportedly helped Jepak Holdings Sdn Bhd secure the multi-billion ringgit solar hybrid project for 369 rural Sarawak schools is suing the company's former managing director (MD) for non-payment of service fee.
The plaintiff, Rayyan Radzwill Abdullah, 40, named Saidi Abang Samsudin as the defendant in the suit. Both of them are key persons in Rosmah's graft case.
Rayyan filed the suit at the Kuala Lumpur High Court on Feb 29 this year, where he claimed that he was appointed as a consultant by Saidi in early 2016, purportedly to draft the working paper for the “Supply and Installation of Integrated Solar Photovoltaic System Hybrid Systems and the Operation and Maintenance of Diesel Genset Project”.
In papers sighted by theedgemarket.com, Rayyan claimed he was promised, in a verbal agreement, that he would receive RM10 million if Jepak bagged the contract.
Thus, he had purportedly given his advice, suggestions and cooperation, and made other efforts for the company to secure the project. Jepak was eventually awarded the job on Nov 10, 2016, with the project said to be worth RM1.25 billion over a period of three years.
In his statement of claim, Rayyan alleged that Jepak began work on the project in January 2017, and Saidi had purportedly received payment from the Education Ministry as the project commenced.
According to Rayyan, he had asked Saidi to pay the RM10 million service fee for his help in securing the project, but claimed that the defendant was reluctant to do so.
On Aug 10, 2017, he received RM1 million for his services from Saidi. The plaintiff then asked for payment of the remaining RM9 million but did not receive it.
He claimed that later, Saidi’s lawyers from Messrs Sandhu and Co sent him an email dated Feb 23, 2018 acknowledging the RM10 million service fee and proposed various ways to pay it.
Rayyan alleged that however, Saidi has not paid him the outstanding amount, which led him to file a suit through Messrs Ravee and Associates seeking the remaining RM9 million as well as an additional RM20 million in lost investment opportunities and business, general damages, interests and costs.
Counter-claim by Saidi
Meanwhile, 61-year-old Saidi, in his defence statement to the suit dated April 6, denied appointing Rayyan as a consultant and only agreed to pay RM1 million, claiming that the plaintiff had agreed to the amount.
The defendant denied that an oral agreement between him and the plaintiff concerning the RM10 million was made.
“The defendant denies there is an oral agreement between them and puts the burden of proof on the plaintiff to further prove what is claimed,” said the defence statement.
Saidi also said the letter emailed by the law firm had stated that it was without prejudice and was made on behalf of Jepak and not himself.
The defendant also filed a counter-claim against Rayyan, reiterating that there was no verbal agreement made and saying that it was only through the persistence of the plaintiff the RM1 million was paid, although it is not incumbent on him to pay.
“After receiving advice from my lawyers, I truly believe that it was not incumbent on me to pay the RM1 million on Aug 10, 2017 and hence, I am seeking the amount back,” Saidi said.
Saidi says he is seeking interests on the RM1 million, costs of the action and other relief deemed necessary by the court.
Besides this, the defendant, through his lawyers from Messrs Arnold Andrew & Co, is also seeking to strike out Rayyan's suit.
There are subsequent replies by Rayyan and Saidi to the defence filed by the former Jepak MD.
It is understood that the case has been fixed before Justice Datuk Ahmad Bache on Aug 21.
The solar hybrid project which sparked the legal dispute between Rayyan and Saidi is central to Rosmah’s corruption trial, where she is battling three counts of graft for purportedly receiving a total of RM6.5 million from Saidi to help him secure the contract.
The wife of the former prime minister had allegedly received the money at her Jalan Duta home and the prime minister's official residence between January 2016 to Dec 20, 2017.
Besides this civil suit, Jepak also filed a suit against the Education Ministry for the termination of the solar hybrid contract in 2018.
Jepak is also applying to be under judicial management, which is a debt restructuring method where a qualified insolvency practitioner is appointed as an independent judicial manager to rehabilitate a financially-troubled company, and for the winding-up petition filed against it to be dismissed.