KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 10): The High Court on Monday has disallowed 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) and 10 other companies’ application to use Singaporean Shabnam Naraindas Daswani’s affidavit in support of its application for a Mareva injunction to be imposed on Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor.
The decision was made by High Court Judge Wan Muhammad Amin Wan Yahya late on Monday afternoon, when he refused to grant leave (permission) for Shabnam’s affidavit to be used in support of 1MDB’s application.
In addition, Wan Muhammad Amin ordered 1MDB to pay RM10,000 costs to Rosmah. The court fixed Nov 27 for case management.
The outcome was confirmed by Datuk Seri Rajan Navaratnam of Messrs Navaratnam Chambers for Rosmah, and also by Lee Shih from Messrs Lim Chee Wee Partnership, who are appearing for 1MDB, when contacted separately by The Edge on Monday.
Besides Rajan, Dinesh Nandrajog and Sheena Sebastian from Messrs Nandrajog acted as solicitors for Rosmah, while Nathalie Ker, Sachin Nair, Villasha Anbalagan, and Chiang Jian Yi also appeared for 1MDB and the other plaintiffs.
The media had been barred from covering the hearing of 1MDB’s application, which took place in July, August, September, and October this year, and was once again barred from the decision on Monday. 1MDB had been seeking to have the court admit Shabnam’s affidavit in support of its request for a Mareva injunction to freeze Rosmah’s assets.
On June 20, The Edge had reported that Shabnam, originally the second defendant in the US$346 million suit, had filed an affidavit in support of the plaintiffs’ Mareva injunction application. She was dropped as the second defendant in April and was said to be wanting to assist the Malaysian authorities.
Shabnam had been cleared by the Singapore authorities of any wrongdoing in the 1MDB scandal.
The Singaporean businesswoman claimed that she became friends with Rosmah in 2003 and followed the wife of the then-prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak on some of her overseas trips and helped choose the valuables, including jewellery and handbags.
The companies in their statement of claim filed in June last year, had alleged that the funds used to purchase the luxury goods were monies from 1MDB and SRC International Sdn Bhd and others, that were fraudulently transferred out of Malaysia to entities registered in offshore jurisdictions, with no connection to the companies' investment objectives. Those transactions, they said, served only to act as a conduit for diverting funds to obscure final destinations.
Rosmah, 74, is alleged to have bought the valuables from 48 vendors from 14 countries.
The plaintiffs are seeking several remedies, namely:
- A recovery of the luxury goods, their traceable proceeds, and a declaration that Rosmah received them for no consideration, alleging that it is a breach of her fiduciary duties or trust;
- An alternative amount of US$346.01 million (approximately RM1.632 billion) to compensate the plaintiffs for the cost of the luxury goods she received as a result of the breach; and
- A court order to freeze Rosmah’s assets to the sum of US$346.01 million.
Initially, Shabnam had been named as a defendant alongside Rosmah, for having purchased or procured the luxury goods for her.
The lawsuit follows a failed forfeiture application by the authorities after a highly publicised raid on a condominium owned by OBYU Holdings Sdn Bhd at Pavilion Residences, Kuala Lumpur, in May 2018. The police had seized over 12,000 pieces of jewellery, several hundred handbags, and watches during the raid.