KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 7): The High Court has today dismissed the prosecution's application to forfeit RM192 million from central Umno and RM300,000 from Wanita MCA, as the money had been spent.

Justice Mohamed Zaini Mazlan said the amount claimed was allegedly received from former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak, who purportedly obtained the monies from 1Malaysia Development Bhd through unlawful activities.

Najib, who was former Umno president, was said to have issued seven cheques in April 2013 to that amount sought by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) in their forfeiture under Section 56 of the Anti Money-Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds from Unlawful Activity Act 2002.

The respondents, he said, argued that it had already been spent. Meanwhile, Umno has shown that the remaining funds in its account are from other sources, and not the former party leader.

"I have perused the bank accounts of the two and found that the amount as in the year 2013 and September 2014, have been used up," he said.

"With this, the application by the prosecution is dismissed," the judge said.

Initially, the prosecution sought RM212 million from central Umno, but this was later reduced to RM192 million.

Justice Zaini also dismissed the forfeiture action against Binsabi Sdn Bhd and Perano Sdn Bhd.

The prosecution is seeking RM777,250 from Binsabi and another RM337,634.78 from Perano.

Perano had reportedly received the money for supplying hijabs to Pekan Umno members.

Like the case against Umno and Wanita MCA, Justice Zaini found that the amount had been used up over the years and that the present amount the prosecution wanted to freeze, is not from the purported illegal funds.

For this reason, Justice also threw out the prosecution's move to forfeit those amounts from the two entities.

Lawyers Datuk Hariharan Singh Tara Singh and Tania Scivetti appeared for Umno, while Datuk Ben Chan appeared for Wanita MCA.

However, the court allowed an interim stay on the prosecution's request to freeze the accounts of the four entities and ordered them to file the stay by next Friday (Feb 14), failing which the stay will be lifted.

This follows deputy public prosecutor Mahadi Abdul Jumaat informing the court that they intend to appeal today's decision at an upper forum, as it involves novel issues of the law.

“I undertake to file the appeal next week. For the time being, we also apply for a stay to unfreeze the account, pending the stay application, as it involves a huge sum of money,” he said.

While the other lawyers in the four cases objected to the temporary stay as there is no formal application, Justice Zaini allowed the prosecution's oral application for the temporary stay.

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