KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 1): The hearing of evidence in 1Malaysia Development Bhd's (1MDB) civil suit against its former board chairman Tan Sri Dr Mohd Irwan Serigar Abdullah, and its former president, Arul Kanda Kandasamy, concluded at the High Court on Wednesday after 43 days.
The court will now proceed to the final argument phase, with oral submissions from both sides set for Feb 26 and 27, before the judge makes a decision. Before that, the court will hear Arul Kanda's counterclaim and discovery application concerning his unpaid bonus and wages on Oct 13.
“This has been the longest and complex (civil) case but parties including the third parties' lawyers have managed to make this proceedings pleasant and cut short the timeline without seeking postponement,” said presiding judge Datuk Raja Ahmad Mohzanuddin Shah Raja Mohzan as he expressed gratitude to all parties, including the third parties Irwan had included in the suit, for expediting the case.
Counsel Lavinia Kumaraendran, representing former Treasury secretary general Irwan, also thanked the judge for his patience in presiding over the case and wished him a swift recovery from his heart ailment.
The judge had been forced to vacate several hearing dates during the proceedings to seek treatment at the National Heart Institute. He has been entrusted with hearing most of 1MDB and its former subsidiary SRC International Sdn Bhd's suits, as several other High Court judges could be conflicted from hearing the cases.
Azmi maintains he had done his best for 1MDB
During Wednesday's proceedings, counsel Razlan Hadri Zulkifli, who appeared for former 1MDB directors Datuk Kamal Mohd Ali and Datuk Seri Norazman Ayub, continued his cross-examination of former 1MDB chief financial officer Azmi Tahir.
Kamal, Norazman, and Azmi were brought in by Irwan as third parties in the US$6.59 billion suit by 1MDB against him and Arul Kanda.
On Wednesday, Azmi denied Razlan's assertion of any wrongdoing with regard to 1MDB. The former CFO maintained that he had "done his best" for the company during his tenure from 2012 to 2018.
He said he had consistently asked former 1MDB chief investment officer Terence Geh Choh Heng for updates on the value and redemption in Brazen Sky Ltd.
Brazen Sky was the special purpose vehicle that held assets originating from 1MDB’s earlier joint venture with PetroSaudi International. That 2009 joint venture was first converted into Murabaha notes and later — following a restructuring — into promissory notes valued at US$2.318 billion. Ultimately, none of that value was recovered.
When Razlan suggested that Azmi had been negligent in handling Brazen Sky, specifically by not requesting documents on Brazen Sky seized by authorities in their probe or by asking BSI Bank to continue providing details after it closed, Azmi denied the claim, maintaining he had "done his part".
Azmi explained that after BSI Bank closed down in 2016, he tried unsuccessfully to get details regarding the company from the fund managers, "Antonio and Francesco from Amicorp".
During re-examination by his counsel Wan Aizuddin Wan Mohammed, Azmi said he had told 1MDB’s counsel Ivan Chen to address the Malaysian authorities to retrieve documents related to Brazen Sky that had been seized by the police and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission since 2015.
“Ivan had asked for it and Irwan had also done his part to address the issue with the police and inspector general of police,” he said.
Azmi further explained that when the new 1MDB board of directors — comprising Irwan, Kamal, and Norazman — came on board in June 2016, he was under intense pressure due to the company’s status.
“During that time, the company was under a lot of scrutiny by the government and it (the company) still had commitments to pay, its debt obligations. I was the main guy to deal with all this. It was difficult to deal with that situation at that point,” he added.