KUALA LUMPUR: The board of directors at SRC International Sdn Bhd were a group of professionals who could not have possibly been manipulated by former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, the High Court here heard.
Former SRC International Sdn Bhd director Tan Sri Ismee Ismail agreed to a suggestion by Najib's lead counsel Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah that former CEO Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil was a chartered accountant and came from a good family background.
The 59-year-old Ismee is testifying as a third-party respondent in SRC International’s US$1.18bil lawsuit against Najib and Nik Faisal, who is currently at large.
The witness also agreed to a suggestion from Muhammad Shafee that Najib, who held the sole power to appoint directors as per the company’s Article 117 of the Memorandum and Articles, did not know any of the board members personally.
Muhammad Shafee: If Najib wanted the board to be the puppets where he is the puppet master, he would not have chosen such qualified members of the board who have their own brain and high qualifications. Is that a fair statement?
Ismee: Yes, it is a fair statement.
Muhammad Shafee: He would have chosen somebody to be a 'pak turut' (yes man), he is not going to choose highly qualified people.
Ismee: Yes.
The hearing resumes before Justice Ahmad Fairuz Zainol Abidin on Sept 17 with Najib set to testify.
Under new management, SRC filed the legal action in May 2021, alleging that Najib had committed breach of trust, abuse of power, misappropriated the company's funds and personally benefited from it.
It named Najib along with its former directors Datuk Suboh Md Yassin, Mohammed Azhar Osman Khairuddin, Nik Faisal, Datuk Che Abdullah @ Rashidi Che Omar, Datuk Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi and Ismee in May 2021.
However, later, it removed six names from the suit and retained Najib and Nik Faisal as the first and second defendants.
Additionally, Najib has brought the named former SRC International directors as third-party respondents in the suit.
The company is seeking damages, interests, costs and a court declaration that Najib is responsible for the company’s losses due to his breach of duties and trust, and is demanding that Najib pay back the US$1.18bil in losses that it has suffered.
It is also seeking US$120mil and US$2mil from Najib and Nik Faisal respectively, on account of fraudulent breach of fiduciary duties and breach of trust.
