PUTRAJAYA (Jan 24): The Court of Appeal said on Monday (Jan 24) it will deliver on Thursday (Jan 27) its decision on ex-prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak's appeal against the High Court's September 2020 decision to strike out Najib's lawsuit against AMMB Holdings Bhd (AmBank), AmBank Islamic Bhd and AmBank former relationship manager Joanna Yu Ging Ping after Najib was found guilty in July 2020 of seven charges involving ex-1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) subsidiary SRC International Sdn Bhd.

On July 28, 2020, the High Court sentenced Najib to 12 years in jail and fined him RM210 million after he was found guilty by Judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali of seven charges involving SRC, which included one charge of abuse of power involving Retirement Fund (Inc)'s (KWAP) RM4 billion loans to SRC, three counts of criminal breach of trust involving RM42 million and three counts of money laundering.

On Sept 28, 2020, the High Court struck out Najib's lawsuit against AmBank, AmBank Islamic and Yu.

It was reported that Najib filed the suit against AmBank and Yu over the management of bank accounts under his name to divert funds from SRC.

According to news reports, Najib also sued AmBank and AmBank Islamic for breach of duty and negligence in handling his bank accounts. Najib claimed that such negligence had resulted in him being found guilty of criminal breach of trust involving the RM42 million of SRC's money.

At the Court of Appeal on Monday (Jan 24, 2022), Court of Appeal Judges Datuk Yaacob Md Sam, Datuk Hadhariah Syed Ismail and Datuk Ahmad Zaidi Ibrahim said the court will deliver on Thursday (Jan 27, 2022) its decision on Najib's appeal against the High Court's decision.

Representing AmBank and AmBank Islamic were lawyers Yoong Sin Min and Benjamin Dawson.

Meanwhile, lawyers Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah and Harvinderjit Singh represented Najib.

Reprensenting Yu was lawyer Datuk Dr Gurdial Singh Nijar.

Harvinderjit said Najib had filed the lawsuit against AmBank, AmBank Islamic and Yu following her testimony during cross-examination in court that there were third parties, other than Najib, who might have access to and directed the bank accounts.

“The legal action is filed based on the testimony that was out there given by Yu. 

"Surely, the High [Court] cannot summarily strike out the [legal] action and my client should be given the chance to prove his case,” Harvinderjit said.

Speaking on behalf of AmBank and AmBank Islamic, Yoong said the Malaysian government via the Attorney-General's Chambers had initiated against Najib criminal proceedings where he was found guilty by the High Court, the decision of which was subsequently upheld by the Court of Appeal on Dec 8, 2021.

As such, she said AmBank and AmBank Islamic cannot be blamed for Najib’s conviction in the SRC case.

“It was the Attorney-General’s [Chambers’] discretion to initiate the criminal proceedings against Najib and the purported losses suffered by him were certainly not caused by the purported acts or omissions of AmBank Islamic or AMMB.

“Furthermore, Najib had closed one of four accounts which he had with the bank, namely the one [with numbers] ending with 694, on Aug 26, 2013. Hence, more than six years have [already] lapsed and hence the [legal] action [by Najib] is time barred,” Yoong said.

Yoong also said the three other bank accounts with numbers ending in 880, 898 and 906 were closed on Najib's own instructions on March 9, 2015.

Looking back, Yoong said it is not disputed that in 2015, the authorities had already begun investigations on SRC, and Najib did not take any action or lodge any reports against AmBank and AmBank Islamic.

Similarly, Yoong said that when the US Department of Justice took action on 1MDB in July 2016, Najib did not take any action against AmBank and AmBank Islamic.

“It was only after his defence was called in the SRC case in 2019 that Najib decided to take action against the financial institutions which we say was never the respondents' (banks) action that caused him to be charged and prosecuted,” she said.

Yoong said it was never disputed that Najib's allegations in his statement of claim for the legal action against AmBank, AmBank Islamic and Yu concerned the unauthorised remittance of funds from the bank accounts.

“However, he has made no earlier complaints and certainly, none concerning his own utilisation of these funds in these accounts. We say there is no reasonable cause of action for the former premier to make the claim now.

“The suit (against AmBank, AmBank Islamic and Yu) was filed as a technical manoeuvre after defence was called and after the prosecution argued that the former premier had not made any prior complaints to put a claim on our clients.

"This is a collateral attack and an abuse of the court process,” Yoong said.

Yoong said AmBank is just a holding company and should not be a party in the suit, as it does not have any contracts with Najib.

Collectively, Yoong, Dawson and Gurdial referred to the Court of Appeal’s Dec 8, 2021 decision to uphold the High Court's guilty verdict for Najib in the SRC case.

They argued that Najib was aware of the transactions involving the bank accounts despite him blaming a third party.

As such, the High Court was right on Sept 28, 2020 when it struck out Najib's lawsuit against AmBank, AmBank Islamic and Yu, they said.