Court throws out RM192m 1MDB forfeiture suits against Umno, MCA Wanita

The Kuala Lumpur High Court has denied the government's bid to forfeit RM192 million in alleged 1MDB-linked funds from Umno.

Justice Mohamed Zaini Mazlan dismissed the forfeiture suit during open-court proceedings this morning.

Zaini ruled that the remaining money left in Umno's bank account as at May 2019 is not linked to any money allegedly deposited by its then president Najib Abdul Razak.

"There is nothing left of the money deposited by DSNR (Najib) in the (Umno) account," he said, adding that the RM192 million has long been spent.

Umno in its submission had contended that the money was spent during the previous 13th General Election among other political activities.

Umno was among 41 entities and individuals who were hit with forfeiture suits from MACC to recover a total RM270 million of monies allegedly linked to 1MDB.

In the same proceedings, Zaini also denied the government's suits to forfeit alleged 1MDB-linked funds from Wanita MCA, Perano Sdn Bhd and Binsabi Sdn Bhd.

The amounts stated in the forfeiture suits are RM300,000, RM337,634.78, and RM777,250 from Wanita MCA, Perano and Binsabi, respectively.

Perano is a subsidiary of textile firm Jakel Trading, while Binsabi is an event management firm.

While reading out brief oral grounds for today’s judgment, Zaini said that Umno’s counsel succeeded in showing that none of the alleged RM192 million was left in the political party’s bank account at CIMB.

The judge was referring to the forfeiture suit’s contention that the RM192 million of proceeds from alleged illegal activity had flowed into Umno’s account from Najib’s account via cheques between April and August 2013. Umno’s account was then frozen in 2018 as part of an investigation by MACC.

“I looked at the respondent’s (Umno) account remaining, (and it) could not be said to be part of the amount from DSNR.

“Withdrawals from the respondent’s bank account (prior to the account being frozen in 2018) justifies the respondent’s contention that the money has long been spent.

“There is nothing left of DSNR’s money in (Umno’s) account to be forfeited. Even if we assume the money is illegitimate proceed, the order for forfeiture can only be against the subject matter (amount of RM192 million),” Zaini said.

Concerning the dismissal of the forfeiture suits against Wanita MCA, Perano and Binsabi, Zaini ruled that the lawyers for the three respondents also managed to show that nothing remained of any monies deposited into their accounts from Najib’s account.

The judge then directed for all the affected bank accounts to be unfrozen immediately.

However, MACC DPP Mahadi Abdul Jumaat made an oral application for interim stay on the unfreezing order pending the hearing of their official application to stay today’s entire court decision and pending their appeal to the Court of Appeal.

Mahadi said the prosecution would file the notice of appeal as soon as possible by next week.

“We (the prosecution) believe there are issues of law that need to be resolved as it involved very important precedent to be determined by the Court of Appeal.

“The important issue here is the issue of nugatory. We worry that if the accounts (Umno, Wanita MCA, Perano and Binsabi) are released (unfrozen) to respondent (today) and if the decision on appeal (at Court of Appeal) favour the appellant (prosecution), then we may have a problem in trying to get back the amount released to the respondents, then the appeal becomes futile (sia-sia),” Mahadi said.

However, this bid to temporarily prevent the unfreezing of the accounts received objections from the four respondents’ lawyers.

Among them was Umno’s lead counsel Hariharan Tara Singh, who argued that the party is the largest and oldest one in Malaysia, and it would need liquid assets to run its activities.

“There are no special circumstances (justifying the interim stay on unfreezing of the (Umno) account,” Hariharan said, with his arguments adopted by counsel for the other three respondents.

The other counsel are Ben Chan for Wanita Umno, Thevini Nayagam for Perano, and Hasir Hassan for Binsabi.

Zaini then allowed the prosecution’s application to temporarily stay the unfreezing of the accounts until disposal of the proper hearing of the prosecution’s formal application to stay today’s entire court decision pending appeal to the Court of Appeal.

“The freezing order remains until disposal of the stay application (by the prosecution),” Zaini said, adding that the prosecution needs to file an official stay application as soon as possible so that hearing date for the said application can be fixed soon.

When met after proceedings, Hariharan clarified that the government’s forfeiture suit against Umno was initially for RM212.97 million, but that amount has since been lowered to RM192 million.

Mahadi also confirmed to the media that the forfeiture suit against Umno has since been lowered from RM212.97 million to RM192 million. - Mkini