KUALA LUMPUR (April 12) : The High Court has fixed 14 days from Oct 16 next year to hear 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) and its three subsidiary companies' US250 million suit against Red Granite Pictures Inc, Riza Aziz and Red Granite Capital Ltd.
The trial will be heard before Judicial Commissioner Datuk Raja Ahmad Mohzanuddin Shah Raja Mohzan from Oct 16 to Nov 4.
A further case management of the matter is scheduled for Thursday (April 13) before the judicial commissioner, for him to give practice directions.
This follows Raja Ahmad Mohzanuddin having in February allowed Riza and the two companies to amend their defence statement to include the details of their settlement agreement with the Malaysian Government and consent judgement with the US government.
The court also allowed the defendants to put in their objection that the suit had been filed after the six-year limitation period.
Riza, is the stepson of jailed former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, and Red Granite is the Hollywood producer of the academy award winning The Wolf of Wall Street and other movies.
1MDB, along with 1MDB Energy Ltd, 1MDB Energy Holdings Ltd and 1MDB Energy (Langat) Ltd had filed the suit in May 2021, wherein the companies claimed that Riza had misappropriated their funds from fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho (more commonly known as Jho Low), or was willful and reckless in failing to make relevant inquiries as to the sources of the funds.
They said the first tranche of payment of more than US$10.173 million made to Riza was from Good Star Ltd, a company controlled by Jho Low, and that the US$238 million that Red Granite Capital received was actually from bonds raised by 1MDB for the purchase of several power plants.
Riza, in his defence, claimed that the US$10 million was borrowed from the Saudi royal family, while the US$238 million was borrowed from Abu Dhabi-based International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC). He also claimed to have paid the US$10 million back to the Saudi royal family.