Facing the heat: Global Royalty said it was the duty of the defendant (Rosmah) to take care of all the jewellery and keep them safe. — AZLINA ABDULLAH/The Star
KUALA LUMPUR: Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor has entered a memorandum of appearance in a lawsuit filed by a wholesale jeweller from Lebanon demanding she pay US$14.57mil or RM67.46mil for violating a contract involving 43 pieces of jewellery sent to her five years ago.
Lawyer Rajivan Nambiar, who represented the wife of former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, said the memorandum was filed on May 2.
"Therefore, the court has set by or before June 2 for Datin Seri Rosmah to file a statement of defence or any interlocutory application," he said when contacted by Bernama after the case management was conducted via e-Review before High Court Deputy Registrar Rini Triany Muhamad Ali, on Friday (May 12).
Meanwhile, lawyer Datuk David Gurupatham, who represented Global Royalty Trading SAL as the plaintiff, confirmed that the defendant (Rosmah) had to file a statement of defence within three weeks and that case management was set for June 7.
On March 29, Beirut-based Global Royalty filed the suit against Rosmah, 71, after claiming she had lied in her affidavit and in her statement of defence by saying that 44 pieces of jewellery, including diamond necklaces, earrings, rings, bracelets and tiaras sent to her by the company’s agent were seized by the Malaysian authorities for offences under the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001.
The company said this was because only one of the 44 pieces of jewellery was kept by the police and the remaining 43 pieces were not in the custody of the authorities.
"Therefore, the defendant failed and was negligent to return to the plaintiff the remaining 43 pieces of jewellery amounting to US$14.57mil, which were sent to the defendant on Feb 10, 2018,” it said.
The plaintiff said that based on the Letter of Undertaking signed by Rosmah dated May 22, 2018, she admitted that the jewellery were in her possession and then confiscated by the Malaysian Government.
"However, in the company's efforts to recover all 44 pieces of jewellery, only one of them could be identified and retrieved from the government by the representative appointed by the plaintiff...that is the diamond emerald bracelet,” it said.
Global Royalty also claimed that the defendant had deceived the company by shifting the burden to the Malaysian Government when in fact, the jewellery had gone missing.
On June 26, 2018, the firm sued Rosmah and demanded that she return the 44 pieces of jewellery sent to her for selection, or pay the price for all of them, namely US$14.79mil.
However, the suit was withdrawn in 2019 as the company needed to determine whether the 44 pieces of jewellery were in the custody of Bank Negara Malaysia.- Bernama
