KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 8): 1Malaysia Development Bhd’s (1MDB) suit against Riza Aziz, stepson of former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, and Hollywood film studio Red Granite Pictures, will finally begin trial next week.
The first witness will take the stand on Oct 16, in the long awaited trial, to be heard before Judicial Commissioner Datuk Raja Ahmad Mohzanuddin Shah Raja Mohzan, since the suit was filed more than three years ago.
All witness statements will be submitted to the court on Oct 9 before the trial starts, lead counsel for 1MDB Rabindra S Nathan of Messrs Shearn Delamore told Raja Ahmad Mohzanuddin Shah during a case management on Tuesday.
Riza’s lawyer Tan Sri Shafee Abdullah had no objection to the submission of the witness statement.
Red Granite, co-founded by Riza and Joey McFarland, had produced the Academy Award-winning “The Wolf of Wall Street” starring Leonardo DiCaprio, and other movies.
In May 2021, 1MDB and its three subsidiaries 1MDB Energy Ltd, 1MDB Energy Holdings Ltd and 1MDB Energy (Langat) Ltd, filed the suit against Riza, Red Granite Pictures Inc and Red Granite Capital Ltd.
1MDB claimed that Riza had misappropriated their funds from fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho, more commonly known as Jho Low, or was wilful 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. He also claimed to have paid the US$10 million back to the Saudi royal family.