Najib and son turn to Federal Court in final bid against LHDN

Former prime minister Najib Razak and his son Mohd Nazifuddin have filed a motion for leave to appeal at the Federal Court in a bid to overthrow another court ruling last week in their ongoing battle with the Inland Revenue Board (LHDN) over claims of unpaid tax arrears amounting to some RM1.7 billion.

The Court of Appeal had on Sept 9 dismissed their appeals against two previous High Court rulings allowing LHDN to enter summary judgments to recover RM1.69 billion from Najib and RM37.6 million from Nazifuddin.

A summary judgment is when the court decides a particular case summarily, without calling witnesses to testify in a trial.

Court of Appeal judge Abdul Karim Abdul Jalil who led a three-man bench said there was no merit to the appeals of Najib and Nazifuddin, and no misdirection by either High Court judge in the previous rulings.

In Najib’s case, High Court judge Ahmad Bache on July 22 last year allowed LHDN’s application for a summary judgment to be entered against Najib in its suit to recover the RM1.69 billion in taxes from the latter for the period between 2011 and 2017.

Najib lost his bid in the High Court on June 14 this year to obtain a stay of execution on the summary judgment.

As for Nazifuddin, High Court judge Ahmad Zaidi Ibrahim on July 6 last year ordered him to pay RM37.6 million in unpaid taxes to LHDN after allowing its application to enter a summary judgment against him in its tax arrears suit seeking to recover the unpaid amount from him between 2011 and 2017.