MACC's 1MDB suits - Foundation seeks out of court settlement
The board of trustees of the Yayasan Rahah, which was named in MACC's 1MDB-related civil forfeiture suit, is seeking an out of court settlement over the matter.
This was revealed to the Kuala Lumpur High Court this morning when the legal representatives for both parties attended the case mention before Justice Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali...
The board of trustees of the Yayasan Rahah, which was named in MACC's 1MDB-related civil forfeiture suit, is seeking an out of court settlement over the matter.
This was revealed to the Kuala Lumpur High Court this morning when the legal representatives for both parties attended the case mention before Justice Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali.
Government lawyer Nik Haslini Hashim told the court that MACC received a letter regarding this from Yayasan Rahah on July 9.
"My Lordship, the applicant (government) served the notice of motion and supporting affidavit on June 27, while the affidavit of service was submitted to the court on June 26.
"However, on July 9, the applicant received a letter from the respondent (Yayasan Rahah) concerning an offer for settlement," she said.
Lawyer Amin Othman (photo above), who is representing Yayasan Rahah, also confirmed to the court that her client had made the offer.
For the record, Yayasan Rahah, which is named after former premier Najib Abdul Razak's mother Rahah Mohammad Noah, runs welfare and education programmes for children and the Orang Asli.
It is among 41 individuals and groups from whom MACC is seeking to forfeit assets worth a total of RM270 million.
According to court documents, the suit against Yayasan Rahah is seeking to forfeit RM839, 489.82.
Nik Haslini then applied to the court to set another date for case management as the offer must be referred to MACC's prosecution director for further instructions.
The judge then set July 26 for both parties to return to court on the settlement.
Speaking to reporters later, Amin confirmed that the instruction to seek an out of court settlement with MACC came from Yayasan Rahah's board of trustees.
However, he declined to disclose what the foundation is offering as part of its attempt to settle the matter.
"I am in no position to disclose it, as not to jeopardise the settlement," he added.
Subhead: Pekan Umno seeks to strike out suits
The same court also heard from counsels representing Pekan Umno and its education bureau chairperson Ibrahim Awang Ismail that their clients would challenge MACC's suits against them.
According to lawyer M Reza Hassan, who is representing the Umno division, his client is seeking to strike out the suit on the basis of technicality.
Similarly, lawyer Amin, who is also representing Ibrahim, cited technicality and merit of the suit as the basis for his client's application to challenge the matter.
For the record, MACC is seeking to forfeit RM700,000 and RM100,000 from Pekan Umno and Ibrahim respectively.
The lawyers also sought for the court to withhold from allowing MACC to publish a gazette for third parties to file their challenges on the forfeiture suits.
This was, however, objected by Nik Haslini, who cited that the applications to strike out the suits have not been received.
After hearing submissions from the parties, Nazlan then set July 26 to hear the striking out application by Pekan Umno, and Aug 2 to hear Ibrahim's.
Meanwhile, Justice Nazlan also heard from Nik Haslini that Maran MP Ismail Abd Muttalib would not challenge MACC's suit to forfeit RM100,000 from him.
The court then allowed the government lawyer's application to publish a gazette for third parties to challenge the suit against Ismail and set this Sept 13 for case management.
Nazlan also allowed a similar application by Nik Haslini on four other groups being sued by MACC, namely Kedah Umno, Sarawak United Peoples' Party and Habib Jewels Sdn Bhd.
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