KUALA LUMPUR: The board of directors at SRC International Sdn Bhd comprised a group of professionals who could not possibly have been manipulated by former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, a witness told the High Court.
Former SRC International Sdn Bhd director Tan Sri Ismee Ismail (pic), 59, agreed to a suggestion by Najib’s lead counsel Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah that former chief executive officer Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil, who is currently at large, was a chartered accountant and came from a good family background.
Ismee is testifying as a third-party respondent in SRC Inter–national’s US$1.18bil lawsuit against Najib and Nik Faisal.
The witness also agreed to a suggestion by 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 brains 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 the 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 benefitted from it.
It named Najib along with former SRC 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, it later removed six names from the suit and retained Najib and Nik Faisal as the first and second defendants.
Additionally, Najib has named the 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.
