Najib withdraws discovery bid in US$1.18b SRC lawsuit

 

Najib Abdul Razak has received documents from SRC International for the trial of the company’s US$1.18 billion civil suit against the former prime minister.

As a result, the former finance minister has withdrawn his discovery application for documents from SRC, a company owned by Minister of Finance Incorporated (MOF Inc), linked to the civil action.

Under the law, litigants often use discovery applications to obtain relevant documents that are in the possession, custody or power of their opponents, for their case.

In the lawsuit, SRC, a former subsidiary of sovereign wealth fund 1MDB, claimed Najib committed a fraudulent breach of duties as SRC’s then adviser emeritus. 1MDB is also fully owned by MOF Inc.

SRC’s allegations are linked to the RM4 billion in loans it received from Retirement Fund Incorporated (Kwap) between 2011 and 2012.

On June 9, the defendant filed a discovery application to obtain documents from SRC to bolster his own defence against the civil action.

When contacted this afternoon, Najib’s counsel Muhammad Farhan Muhammad Shafee confirmed the outcome of the matter before the Kuala Lumpur High Court.

Najib’s discovery bid was set for hearing today before judge Ahmad Fairuz Zainol.

“We have informed the court that the first defendant (Najib) was satisfied with the present bundle of documents provided for trial purposes.

“Any remaining documents not provided will be taken up as an evidentiary argument and/or an application for disclosure of the specific document,” Farhan said, adding that as a result, they have withdrawn the discovery application.

The counsel said that the civil court had directed parties to file a common chronology of events and parties’ summary of the case by Oct 17.

Farhan added that the court also fixed that date (Oct 17) for case management for further pre-trial directions.

Counsel Syafinaz Vani and Lisa Yong, from law firm Rosli Dahlan Saravana Partnership, represented SRC.

Najib was also represented by counsel Alastair Brandah Norman. Both Farhan and Norman are from law firm Shafee & Co.

In his statement of defence filed on April 4, Najib contended that any wrongful transfers of funds out of SRC were due to its previous management.

He claimed it was due to the MOF Inc-owned entity’s corporate structure removing him from any position to control its board.

Najib is serving a 12-year jail term, following the apex court on Aug 23 dismissing his appeal to quash his conviction as well as sentencing in a criminal case involving RM42 million of funds from SRC.

The US$1.18 billion suit is one among 22 civil actions launched by 1MDB and SRC last year, targeting those who purportedly defrauded the two government-owned entities, whether knowingly or unknowingly.

In the current civil action, the sole plaintiff is SRC while Najib is the only defendant.

The lawsuit initially listed as defendants several former SRC directors - Suboh Md Yassin, Mohammed Azhar Osman Khairuddin, Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil, Che Abdullah@Rashidi Che Omar, Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi, and Ismee Ismail.

However, their names have since been dropped. - Mkini