KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 25): The scheduled hearing of Datuk Seri Najib Razak's application for a stay of hearing of SRC International Sdn Bhd's US$1.18 billion civil suit against him and six others in the High Court here did not proceed on Tuesday (Jan 25).
That's because Najib's counsel Harvinderjit Singh was unwell. The hearing of the stay application has now been postponed until Feb 17 by Justice Datuk Ahmad Fairuz Zainol Abidin.
On that day, besides the application by Najib to stay the proceedings, there will also be a hearing for an extension of time for him to file his defence.
It is understood that SRC, led by counsel Datuk DP Naban, would object to the stay application.
Meanwhile, a former SRC director, Datuk Mohammed Azhar Osman Khairuddin, who was originally named in the suit along with Najib, has been withdrawn as a defendant.
Azhar was dropped from the suit along with former chairman Tan Sri Ismee Ismail and former director Datuk Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi.
Azhar, who filed a counterclaim against SRC and filed third-party notices against Ismee and Shahrol to reinstate them in the SRC suit, has also withdrawn his counterclaim. This was recorded by Justice Ahmad Fairuz and confirmed by Azhar's lawyer Datuk Loh Siew Cheang.
In its statement of claim, SRC, a former subsidiary of 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB), is accusing the defendants of breach of duties, breach of trust, receiving wrongful property, dishonest assistance and wrongful conspiracy of SRC property.
SRC, which is now placed under Minister of Finance Inc, has also accused Najib and the other defendants of abuse of power, dishonesty and misappropriation of SRC funds, and acting with the knowledge or probability of harming the company.
SRC is seeking a declaration from the court that the defendants are liable to account for the company's losses due to their fraudulent breach of duties and trust.
It is also seeking an order that they pay the US$1.18 billion in losses it suffered, and damages for breach of duties and trust.
The amount is said to be from Kumpulan Wang Persaraan (Diperbadankan)'s (KWAP) RM4 billion loans that were given to SRC between 2011 and 2012, which were immediately transferred out to Swiss banks after KWAP transferred them to SRC accounts, only to be unrecovered until today with their status unknown.
Najib was found guilty of abusing his power for his role in approving the KWAP loans and three counts of breach of trust and another three counts of money laundering of RM42 million of SRC funds by the High Court on July 28, 2020.
The Court of Appeal last month affirmed the conviction and 12 years' jail and RM210 million fine sentence, against which the former premier is presently trying to exhaust his final appeal in the Federal Court.