KUALA LUMPUR: Former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak (pic) has claimed that the removal of others who were initially named in a lawsuit filed against him by 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) and its subsidiaries is an abuse of process.
The Pekan MP said this in a statement of defence filed by Messrs Shafee & Co on March 28 in 1MDB’s US$8bil (RM33.8bil) legal action against him.
“It is apparent from the amended writ of summons that the wrongdoers that were initially named were removed.
“This casts suspicion and disingenuousness on the part of the plaintiffs in the filing of this suit, thus amounting to abuse of process,” he said in the document sighted by The Star.
Najib is the first defendant in the civil case.
The other defendants named in the lawsuit are 1MDB’s executives Terence Geh (former executive director of finance), Jasmine Loo (former general counsel), Casey Tang (former executive director), Vincent Beng (former chief investment officer), Radhi Mohamad (former chief financial officer) and Kelvin Tan (former director of investments).
The court document, however, did not explicitly mention the names of those who were dropped from the legal papers.
In the document, Najib said he also denied each and every allegation and assertion contained in the statement of claim.
The civil suit by 1MDB and its subsidiaries – 1MDB Energy Holdings Ltd, 1MDB Energy Ltd, 1MDB Energy (Langat) Ltd and Global Diversified Investment Company Ltd – was filed on May 7 last year.
The suit had first named 15 defendants, including Najib, for alleged breach of fiduciary duties, among others.
However, in August last year, 1MDB reportedly dropped seven of the 15 defendants.
On Feb 8, 1MDB obtained an ex-parte injunction to effectively freeze Najib’s assets of up to US$681mil (RM2.88bil), pending the outcome of the suit, including limiting his monthly bank withdrawals to RM100,000.
The High Court fixed Aug 17 to hear Najib’s bid to set aside the injunction while his RM2.28bil 1MDB trial is scheduled to resume on April 18.