PUTRAJAYA (Aug 28): The Court of Appeal (COA) here has fixed Oct 15 to hear former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s appeal over a US$681 million Mareva injunction (asset-freezing order) imposed on him by the Kuala Lumpur High Court, following an application by 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB).
The date was confirmed by 1MDB counsel Siva Kumar Kanagasabai from Messrs Skrine, following a case management earlier this week (on Aug 26).
Siva Kumar said parties have been told to file in their written submissions and replies before the hearing date.
A Mareva injunction is a freezing of assets order imposed by the court against a defendant, to prevent the dissipating of funds, pending the disposal of a suit.
The High Court had on Sept 27 upheld the US$681 million Mareva injunction imposed on Najib, after granting an ex-parte application from 1MDB earlier last year. This follows judge Atan Mustaffa Yussof Ahmad’s dismissal of Najib’s application to set aside the injunction.
“They (1MDB’s application) are substantiated by substantial evidence. Furthermore, it is clarified that the ‘good arguable case’ standard for a Mareva injunction is not as onerous as contended by Najib.
“The plaintiffs (1MDB and its subsidiary company) have unquestionably met this standard, considering the evidence and legal arguments presented before the court,” Atan Mustaffa had said in his decision.
Atan Mustaffa said the SRC International Sdn Bhd criminal trial findings are relevant to this Mareva injunction application, casting doubt on Najib’s explanation of the funds as Arab donations.
Najib had previously applied to set aside the Mareva injunction sought by 1MDB and applied to court in attending the hearing of the proceedings, but this was dismissed by Atan Mustaffa.
This resulted in the former Pekan member of parliament appealing the non-attendance ruling and it went all the way to the Federal Court, where it was dismissed by a three-member bench, led by Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Tan Sri Abdul Rahman Sebli.
Prior to this, 1MDB former subsidiary SRC International Sdn Bhd had also obtained a Mareva injunction of RM42 million on Najib, and the decision was upheld by the apex court.
1MDB had filed the US$8 billion suit in May 2021, along with 1MDB Energy Holdings Ltd, 1MDB Energy Ltd, 1MDB Energy (Langat) Ltd and Global Diversified Investment Company Ltd (previously known as 1MDB Global Investment Ltd), against Najib and seven other former senior 1MDB staff, several of whom are still missing.
Those named include 1MDB deputy chief financial officer and executive finance director Terence Geh Choh Heng, former general counsel Jasmine Loo Ai Swan, executive director of business development Casey Tang Keng Chee, former director of investments and chief investment officer Vincent Beng Huat Koh, former chief financial officer and subsequently chief operating officer Radhi Mohamad, former director of investments Kelvin Tan Kay Jim, and former chief investment officer Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil.
In the statement of claim, the plaintiffs alleged that the defendants, including Najib as the former chairman of the board of advisers, had facilitated the companies to enter into sham agreements to create a circuitous trail of money, to ease or conceal the misappropriation of 1MDB funds.
Najib is presently entering two years of his reduced, six-year jail sentence at the Kajang prison after the royal pardon, post the Federal Court having upheld his conviction and sentence of all seven charges in the SRC International case on Aug 23, 2022.