KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Seri Najib Razak today failed to restore his lawsuit against AmBank Islamic, AMMB Holdings Bhd and its former officer Joanna Yu over mismanagement of his accounts which were scrutinised in his SRC International Sdn Bhd trial.
This after the Court of Appeal today affirmed the High Court's decision to allow Yu and two Ambank entities to strike out Najib's lawsuit filed two years ago.
Judge Datuk Yaacob Md Sam when reading the unanimous decision, said there was no error by the High Court in allowing the respondent's application.
"We agree with the learned High Court judge that the action brought by Najib against the three was an abuse of the court's process and made for collateral purposes on his criminal matter, the SRC International proceedings.
"We therefore dismiss the appeal," he said.
The court awarded costs of RM40,000 to both the Ambank entities and RM35,000 costs to Yu.
Najib in his statement of claim said AmBank and Yu had committed negligence when handling his bank accounts (ending 694, 880, 898, and 906) by disclosing it to fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho or Jho Low.
The former prime minister also claimed he had been kept in the dark on the details of his own bank accounts statements and other related documents by the bank under Low's instruction.
He said the defendants failed to report and get direct instructions from the plaintiff despite the accounts being red flagged.
However, on Jan 29 last year, Yu filed an application to strike out the suit on grounds that it was an abuse of the court process and to bolster Najib's defence in the SRC International case.
The High Court, on Sept 28 last year, allowed Yu and the two Ambank entities' applications.
Najib was sentenced to 12 years' jail by the High Court and fined RM210 million after he was found guilty of all seven charges of criminal breach of trust, abuse of power and money laundering involving RM42 million of SRC International funds.
However, he obtained stay of the sentence pending appeal.