In their defence filed today, Geethan Ram, K Kumaraendran, Rajivan Nambiar, Reza Rahim, Lavania Raja and Revin Kumar said the items of jewellery were delivered for Rosmah’s viewing “by virtue of the fact that she was the wife of the prime minister of Malaysia”.
They added that the jewellery was delivered “of the plaintiff’s own accord and violation and without there being any obligation for our client to purchase the jewellery”.
“The suit filed by Global Royalty contravenes the provisions of the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001.
“Accordingly, the said suit filed by Global Royalty against our client is clearly unlawful, frivolous, vexatious and/or an abuse of court process,” they said in a statement.
They added that the position taken by Global Royalty that Rosmah was liable to indemnify a total of RM59,831,317.40 was “misconceived and without any legal basis”.
Global Royalty filed the suit against Rosmah at the Kuala Lumpur High Court on June 26, demanding that she return 44 pieces of jewellery allegedly sent to her for viewing or pay the price for all the items totalling US$14.79 million (RM59.83 million).
The jewellery was reportedly seized by the authorities during police raids of properties linked to her husband, Najib Razak, in May.
Global Royalty is said to be seeking a court declaration that it is the rightful owner of the jewellery, and that the items must be returned, failing which Rosmah must pay the amount determined based on the value of the pieces.
Rosmah’s lawyers said she would be making an application to strike out the suit “in due course”.
Last month, police said over RM1 billion worth of items were seized in raids at several premises linked to Najib after Pakatan Harapan took over Putrajaya in the May 9 polls.
These included 72 bags of cash and valuables, and hundreds of boxes containing luxury handbags.
Thirty-five of the bags contained RM116.7 million in cash while another 25 bags contained 12,000 items of jewellery, including rings and diamond earrings, estimated to cost RM440 million in materials alone.
Police said these included 1,400 chains, 2,200 rings, 2,800 pairs of earrings and 14 tiaras. The most valuable piece of jewellery was a white diamond necklace estimated to cost RM6.4 million.
On July 4, Najib was charged with three counts of criminal breach of trust and one count of abuse of power in relation to RM42 million channelled into his personal bank account from former 1MDB subsidiary, SRC International.
He pleaded not guilty to all four charges.
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