Yayasan Rahah and Naza Quest Auto will know on Aug 23 whether there will be a global settlement of the 1MDB forfeiture suit against them.
Kuala Lumpur High Court judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali was informed of this by DPP Allan Suman Pillai during open-court case management of the matter this morning.
“As we (prosecution) are in the midst of collecting all representations, we need some time to inform relevant parties (whether to settle the matter). We agreed by 23 (Aug) that we (prosecution) can give a response,” Pillai said.
Yayasan Rahah's counsel Amin Othman and Naza Quest Auto's counsel Md Yunos Shariff confirmed the matter.
Today was initially set for hearing of the prosecution’s application for gazetting of notice for third parties to come to court and stake their claim on the assets sought to be forfeited in the suits against Yayasan Rahah and Naza Quest Auto.
The application for the third party notice was made under Section 56 and 61 (2) of the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001.
Nazlan then sets Aug 23 to update the court on whether the two entities' proposed settlement, conveyed via letters of representation to the prosecution, is successful.
When met after proceedings, Pillai confirmed that Naza Quest Auto sent its letter of representation on July 23.
Meanwhile, in the same court, the judge postponed today’s hearing of preliminary objection from Pekan Umno against the prosecution's application for third party notice in the 1MDB forfeiture suit against the division-level political organisation, to Aug 23.
Nazlan allowed the postponement application from Pekan Umno’s lawyer M Reza Hassan, due to technical difficulties which arose from the filing of the preliminary objection.
“We had filed the application to strike out this action (via preliminary objection) last Friday. However, due to some technical difficulties, the filing was rejected by this court.
So we had refiled it,” Reza said, adding that more time is needed to allow the prosecution to file their affidavit in response to the preliminary objection, among others.
Pillai confirmed what transpired and raised no objection to the postponement bid.
It was reported on July 12 that the Yayasan Rahah board of trustees, named in MACC's 1MDB-related civil forfeiture suit, is seeking an out of court settlement over the matter.
For the record, Yayasan Rahah, which is named after former premier Najib Abdul Razak's mother Rahah Mohammad Noah, runs welfare and education programmes for children and the Orang Asli.
A subsidiary of conglomerate Naza Group, Naza Quest Auto was the sole Malaysian distributor of Chevrolet cars for US manufacturer General Motors until November last year.
The company responded to the suit, saying that it received a request from MACC to forfeit RM269,662 in relation to the purchase of four Chevrolets.
Yayasan Rahah, Naza Quest Auto and Pekan Umno are among 41 individuals and groupsfrom whom MACC is seeking to forfeit assets worth a total of RM270 million.
According to court documents, the suit seeks to forfeit RM839,489.82 from Yayasan Rahah, RM269,662 from Naza Quest Auto, and RM700,000 from Pekan Umno. - Mkini
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