Today’s hearing of the government’s US$340 million 1MDB-linked forfeiture suit against PetroSaudi International Limited and four others has been vacated due to the ongoing conditional movement control order (MCO).
The Kuala Lumpur High Court has fixed Dec 14 for mention to determine a new hearing date.
This was confirmed by deputy public prosecutor Budiman Lutfi Mohamed when contacted by Malaysiakini.
“(Today’s hearing of the forfeiture suit) has been vacated. The court has set a mention date on Dec 14,” he said.
The DPP explained that the mention date is to determine a new hearing date, in light of uncertainty whether the conditional MCO would be further extended in December.
Today was initially fixed for hearing of the forfeiture suit before High Court judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali after an earlier postponement from Oct 5.
On Nov 7, the government announced that the conditional MCO over Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya would be further extended to Dec 6.
The Malaysian government filed the main forfeiture suit against Petrosaudi on July 10 to recover US$340 million which allegedly originated from 1MDB.
Aside from PetroSaudi International, the other respondents are Petrosaudi International’s director Tarek Obaid, PetroSaudi Oil Services (Venezuela) Limited (POSL), Clyde & Co LLP and Temple Fiduciary Services Limited (TFSL).
In its application, the government claimed that the amount totalling US$340,258,246,87 at Clyde & Co LLP owned by PetroSaudi International and its subsidiary PSOL was derived from money-laundering.
The application was filed under Section 53 of the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001, among others.
PetroSaudi International was formerly a joint-venture partner of 1MDB.
The joint-venture deal was alleged to have been a front to siphon 1MDB funds, according to the US Department of Justice.
Meanwhile, when contacted today, Kuala Lumpur High Court deputy registrar Mahyudin Mohmad Som explained that PSOL's lawyers had earlier wrote to court seeking for today's hearing to be postponed due to concerns over Covid-19.
Mahyudin said that PSOL's counsel had also sought the postponement as parties are still in discussion to try to resolve the matter.
He added that the prosecution had no objection to the postponement bid because the earlier interim order, to the effect of not to dispose of the assets targeted in the forfeiture suit, is still binding and in force.
"In view of parties need more time to negotiate and their confirmation of the subsistence of the interim order as well as the coincidental extension of the CMCO (conditional MCO), the court allowed the application to postpone," Mahyudin said. - Mkini
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