Najib withdraws 'academic' appeal to lift US$681m Mareva freezing order

Najib Abdul Razak has withdrawn his appeal to lift a Mareva injunction against him to prevent the dissipation of US$681 million of assets in Malaysia.

The former prime minister’s counsel Muhammad Farhan Muhammad Shafee told the Court of Appeal this morning that the appeal has become ‘academic’.

However, Najib’s lawyer did not explain what he meant by the matter becoming academic.

The three-person bench chaired by appellate judge Lee Swee Seng then unanimously allowed the appeal withdrawal and ordered the defendant to pay RM30,000 costs to 1MDB and its four subsidiaries.

On Feb 9, 2022, the Kuala Lumpur High Court allowed 1MDB’s restraining order to maintain the status quo in the plaintiffs’ ongoing US$8 billion lawsuit against defendant Najib.

Among the effects of the Mareva injunction is that Najib can only withdraw RM100,000 monthly from his bank account for daily expenditures.

The former finance minister will have to apply to 1MDB’s solicitors if he needs to withdraw more than the RM100,000 a month stipulated by the civil court.

A Mareva injunction is a freezing or asset protection order that prevents a defendant or respondent from transferring assets which may include money held in banks or financial institutions pending the completion of legal action.

In the civil action, 1MDB claimed that US$681 million of the troubled Malaysian sovereign wealth fund’s monies flowed into the account of Najib, who used to be chairperson of its board of advisers.

The fund also claimed that Najib had facilitated the fund and its subsidiaries to enter sham agreements that formed a convoluted money trail to conceal the misappropriation of funds.

Najib’s conviction in a separate RM42 million SRC International criminal graft case was among the reasons cited by 1MDB and its subsidiaries to apply for the freezing order.

The former Pekan MP is serving a six-year jail term and was fined RM50 million for the graft charges related to RM42 million he received from SRC.

The four 1MDB subsidiaries of 1MDB are 1MDB Energy (Langat) Limited, Global Diversified Investment Company Limited (formerly known as 1MDB Global Investments Limited), 1MDB Energy Holdings Limited, and 1MDB Energy Limited.

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