Judicial commissioner recuses herself from 1MDB suit against Irwan, Arul Kanda

A judicial commissioner yesterday recused herself from hearing the 1MDB suit against former treasury secretary-general Irwan Serigar Abdullah and former 1MDB CEO Arul Kanda Kandasamy, from whom the state fund is claiming US$6.59 billion.

Lavinia Kumaraendran, representing Irwan, said this when contacted by reporters after the case had been called for case management before judicial commissioner Roz Mawar Rozain.

"The case management date is fixed for Sept 27 and the hearing of Irwan and Arul Kanda's application to cancel the 1MDB suit on Oct 19 has been vacated," the lawyer added.

The application to quash the suit was supposed to be heard before Roz Mawar, who replaced judge Amarjeet Singh who was transferred to the High Court appellate and special powers division.

It is understood that Roz Mawar, before being appointed as judicial commissioner, held the position of deputy director of prosecution and civil enforcement of the Securities Commission Malaysia. The SC was one of the agencies involved in the 1MDB investigation.
 
Arul Kanda and Irwan were sued by 1MDB in May last year over an alleged breach of trust and conspiracy resulting in the company suffering losses of US$1.83 billion in connection with an investment in 1MDB-Petrosaudi Ltd that was converted to an investment in Brazen Sky Limited (Brazen Sky), and then converted into an investment in Bridge Global Fund.

1MDB also claimed that the two defendants had committed breach of trust and conspiracy by embezzling US$3.5 billion of 1MDB money paid to Aabar Investments and US$1.265 billion paid to International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC) on May 9, 2017.

According to 1MDB, Irwan also conspired with Arul Kanda to cause the company to execute the employment agreement extension and make payments amounting to RM2,905,200 to Arul Kanda in accordance with the agreement, without regard to the interests of 1MDB, thus causing the company to suffer losses.

1MDB is demanding, among others, that the two defendants pay US$6.59 billion in relation to the breach. It is also seeking an additional RM2.9 million from Irwan in relation to the employment agreement extension.