This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on December 19, 2019

KUALA LUMPUR: The government’s RM250 million suit against National Feedlot Corp Sdn Bhd (NFC), its chairman Datuk Seri Dr Mohamad Salleh Ismail and nine others, will proceed to trial in January next year, despite a change in judge at the High Court.

High Court Judicial Commissioner Anand Ponnudurai, who was pulled in from private practice into the judiciary last month, maintained the trial dates of Jan 13 to 15, 17 and 20, which were fixed by his predecessor Justice S Nantha Balan, who has now been elevated to the Court of Appeal.

NFC and Salleh’s lawyer Datuk Seri Rajan Navaratnam said this after he, together with Senior Federal Counsel Mohd Radhi Abas, met Anand in his chambers for case management yesterday.

According to Rajan, the court directed that a common bundle of documents be put together, together with a common chronology of events and witness statements, all of which would have to be submitted on Jan 8.

“The case management for this case is also fixed on Jan 8,” he told reporters after meeting the judicial commissioner.

On the possibility of settlement, Rajan said there is none at the moment as the parties have not gone for mediation.

Salleh is the husband of former women, family and community development minister Tan Sri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, who was also previously Umno’s Wanita chief.

Besides NFC and Salleh, those named as defendants in the case are Salleh and Shahrizat’s three children — Wan Shahinur Izmir Mohamad Salleh, Wan Izzana Fatimah Zabedah Mohamad Salleh and Wan Shahinur Izran Mohamad Salleh — and the companies Meatworks Corp Sdn Bhd, Techknowlogy Imageware (M) Sdn Bhd, Real Food Company Sdn Bhd, National Meat & Livestock Corp Sdn Bhd, Asian Bioscience Corp Sdn Bhd and Agroscience Industries Sdn Bhd, which are owned by the family.

In May, it was reported that the finance ministry was seeking a full repayment of the RM250 million loan it extended to the NFC in 2008, after the latter defaulted on the repayment of the loan.

Together with interest and late interest charges, the outstanding loan amount stood at RM253.62 million as of April 30, 2019.

“From this sum, RM110.84 million is the amount due for repayment to the federal government as of April 30, 2019, consisting of loan principal arrears of RM81.99 million, loan interest of RM22.97 million and late interest charges of RM5.89 million,” the ministry said in a statement then.

The government filed the suit against them on May 31 this year, to seek RM253.62 million, representing the sum owed to the government, together with interest of 2% per annum and a default interest on RM224.77 million.

The government is also seeking a declaration from the court that Salleh’s family is personally liable for the debt repayment, that a sum of RM118.04 million has allegedly been misappropriated from the loan, together with secret profits arising from it, and that Putrajaya is entitled to claim equitable title to the properties bought using NFC’s RM250 million loan from the government.

It was previously reported that NFC was given a RM250 million loan in 2008 for the development of the cattle industry to meet Malaysia’s needs. However, part of the funds was instead used for other questionable purchases including condos and other properties in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore.