KUALA LUMPUR (April 12): The hearing dates for Datuk Seri Najib Razak's Mareva injunction matter has been vacated and new dates will be set this Thursday (April 14).
The matter came up during case management on Tuesday before Judicial Commissioner Atan Mustaffa Yussof Ahmad.
Skrine's Siva Kumar Kanagasabai, representing 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) and its four subsidiaries, told theedgemarkets.com about the latest development when contacted.
"Earlier hearing dates [are] vacated. Next case management on April 14 to fix [a] new hearing date," he said.
He also added that both the plaintiffs (1MDB and its subsidiaries) and Najib will have to file their affidavits in reply with regards to the Mareva injunction and setting-aside application on or before April 26.
Initially, the inter-parte Mareva injunction application and Najib's application to set aside the injunction were fixed to be heard on May 6.
On Feb 8, 1MDB along with Global Diversified Investment Company Ltd (previously known as 1MDB Global Investment Ltd or 1MDBGIL) and three other units obtained an ex-parte Mareva injunction from the High Court (commercial division) against Najib in relation to their claim of US$681 million.
A Mareva injunction is a court order which essentially freezes the defendant's assets to prevent any transfer of said assets that a plaintiff is seeking to recover.
Siva Kumar on Tuesday also clarified that the injunction was initially an ex-parte (one party) application. However, an "ad interim injunction" was granted pending the inter partes hearing. He clarified that the terms were the same as the ex-parte injunction granted.
The Mareva injunction is part of a larger US$8 billion civil suit against the former premier and others on the grounds of financial loss due to abuse of power and breach of fiduciary duties over the 1MDB scandal.
The plaintiffs had also named former 1MDB executives Terence Geh, Casey Tang, Jasmine Loo and Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil as defendants.
Geh was 1MDB deputy chief financial officer and Loo is its former general counsel, while Tang was its executive director of business development and former chief investment officer. Nik Faisal was its chief executive officer. All four individuals are still at large.
The others who were named are 1MDB's former director of investments and chief investment officer Vincent Beng Huat Koh, former chief financial officer Radhi Mohamad, and former director of investments Kelvin Tan Kay Jim.
The Court on Tuesday also gave instructions for 1MDB and its subsidiaries amongst others to file separate issues to be tried in respect to each defendant and their summary of the case by May 11.
This US$8 billion suit is part of a larger 22 civil suits filed in May 2021 to recover losses suffered by 1MDB and its subsidiary SRC International Sdn Bhd.
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