KUALA LUMPUR: The hearing of the government’s bid for a restraining order over alleged 1MDB funds of US$340 million (about RM1.5 billion) held by a UK law firm has been deferred to Nov 23.
This comes after High Court judge Ahmad Shahrir Salleh pointed out that court papers filed by the government in connection with the application taken out against Tarek Obaid, PetroSaudi International (PSI) and two others, were “too vague”.
The judge noted that the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) was relying on Section 53 of the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001 (Amla) as the basis for its application.
However, Shahrir said the court documents had failed to identify whether it was relying on sub-section (a) or (c) of Section 53.
Deputy public prosecutor Norinna Bahadun said she would seek instructions from her superiors as to whether an amendment to the cause papers was necessary.
The government is seeking an order to bar PSI and Tarek, as well as PSI’s subsidiary PetroSaudi Oil Services (Venezuela) Limited, from accessing the money which is presently held in the client’s account of law firm Clyde & Co LLP.
It claimed the funds were proceeds from unlawful activities.
The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) previously pointed out that PetroSaudi Oil Services had successfully secured an arbitration award which required Petróleos de Venezuela, a Venezuelan state-owned entity, to deposit US$500 million into Clyde & Co LLP’s bank account.
Should the prosecution succeed in the present application, it will be able to invoke the Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters Act to secure enforcement of the order in the UK through its Crown Prosecution Service.
Earlier today, Shahrir questioned the prosecution’s reliance on an affidavit filed by MACC investigating officer Afiq Abd Aziz.
Afiq had relied on the US department of justice’s (DoJ) filing on 1MDB forfeiture actions as basis to initiate the present move to restrain the funds.
“Would it be reasonable for the investigating officer to do so,” the judge asked.
In reply, Norinna said that the DoJ report was admissible under the law.
“He used the DoJ filing as well as (former 1MDB CEO) Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi’s testimony in court as the basis to start his investigations (on PSI),” she added. - FMT
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