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KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court here has allowed a request by former banker Joanna Yu and two other people to sue them by former Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak for allegations of mismanagement of their bank accounts.
The High Court Judge, Judge Khadijah Idris, accepted the request of Yu, AmBank Islamic Bhd and AMMB Holdings Bhd to reject the lawsuit on the grounds that Najib’s legal action was untenable.
In his ruling, the judge found the plaintiff’s claim scandalous, frivolous, vexatious and an abuse of the judicial process.
The court also noted that Najib initiated the lawsuit against Yu and the two entities after he testified at the SRC International Sdn Bhd trial.
Yu was the 54th prosecution witness to testify against the Pekan deputy at the trial.
“This action by the plaintiff is not to seek damages but for a collateral purpose, to strengthen the plaintiff’s defense in the SRC case and therefore an abuse of the judicial process,” the judge said here on Monday (September 28 ).
The court also ordered Najib to pay RM30,000 in costs to AmBank and AMMB Holdings and RM25,000 in costs to Yu.
Yu was represented by Datuk Dr Gurdial Singh Nijar, while AmBank was represented by Yoong Sin Min.
Meanwhile, Najib’s lawyer, Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, informed the court that they would soon file an appeal against the decision.
Both Yu and Najib did not appear in court during the proceedings.
On December 9 last year, Najib filed the lawsuit in the High Court registry and named AmBank, AMMB Holdings and Yu as defendants.
According to the claim brief, Najib claimed that AmBank and Yu had been negligent in managing their bank accounts (ending at 694,880,898 and 906) by disclosing them to fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho, better known as Jho Low.
Najib claimed that the defendants had disclosed their bank statements, credit and debit remittance transactions, and fund balances from account 694 without authorization to Low as a third party.
He claimed that the defendants did not engage with him to report Low’s actions with respect to said bank account and that the bank had facilitated the unauthorized third party to make money transfers between accounts 880,898 and 906.
Najib also claimed that the bank had kept him in the dark about the details of his own bank account statements and other related documents under Low’s instructions.
It alleged that Low, with the help of other unauthorized third parties, had conducted 20 transactions to regularize the accounts for a total of RM12,000 through various local and foreign remittances and that Bank Negara Malaysia had flagged the accounts.
Najib claimed that the defendants did not report and did not receive direct instructions from him despite the accounts being flagged.
He also claimed that he only discovered the act committed by the defendants during the SRC International trial after the prosecution had disclosed the conversations between Yu and third parties.
Najib seeks special, general, aggravated and exemplary damages from the accused.
Yu, along with AMMB Holdings Bhd and AmBank Islamic Bhd, is trying to settle the lawsuit brought against them by Najib.
On July 28, Kuala Lumpur High Court Judge, Judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali, convicted and sentenced Najib to 12 years in prison and fined him RM210,000 for the SRC International criminal case.
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