Najib Withdraws Bid To Recuse Private Lawyer From Rm1 69b Tax Suit

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Private lawyer DP Naban will continue to act for the Inland Revenue Board (IRB) in the government's RM1.69 billion tax suit against former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak
This followed the former finance minister withdrawing his application to disqualify Naban from acting for IRB in the legal action
This was confirmed by Najib's counsel Muhammad Farhan Muhammad Shafee after he attended the case management of the legal action in the chambers of Kuala Lumpur High Court judge Ahmad Bache this afternoon
On Nov 8, it was reported that Najib sought to recuse Naban from the legal action, over purported conflict of interest between the said legal practitioner's specialisation in tax-related cases and the current government’s tax suit against Najib

Speaking to journalists outside the court this afternoon, Farhan said the government, who is the plaintiff in the matter and acting through IRB, gave Najib’s defence team the letter of appointment on Dec 11
He said Najib initially sought the recusal because the defence did not have details about Naban’s letter of appointment to check whether there was any potential conflict of interest between his (Naban’s) private practice that specialises in tax matters and acting for the IRB in the case
Farhan added that following the filing of the recusal application, the government shared the letter of appointment with Najib’s legal team
“After we obtained (Naban’s) letter of appointment and studied it, we decided to withdraw the recusal application
“At this point, based on perusing through the letter of appointment, we do not see any conflict of interest in the appointment (of Naban to act for IRB),” he said in relation to Naban’s appointment under Section 24(3) of the Government Proceedings Act 1956
Section 24(3) stated that an advocate and solicitor may appear as an advocate on behalf of the federal government in civil proceedings instituted by the said federal government, among others
Farhan said Najib had also initially sought to recuse Naban as the IRB seemed as though they did not want to show the letter of appointment to Najib’s legal team during the earlier proceeding on Nov 8, which he said seemed suspicious at the time
On Nov 8, the scheduled hearing of Najib’s application to stay the entire tax suit pending his tax-reassessment appeal with IRB, as well as IRB’s summary judgment application, did not proceed before the same court, following Najib’s counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah informing the court of the intent to file the recusal bid
Farhan (below) added that the court set Jan 7 for case management to fix hearing dates for Najib’s application to stay the entire suit pending his tax-reassessment appeal with the IRB, as well as IRB’s application for summary judgment against Najib in the main tax suit
Senior federal counsel Norhisham Ahmad and Al-Hummidallah Idrus appeared for IRB while lawyer Wee Yeong Kang also acted for Najib
Neither Najib nor Naban was present at court this afternoon
On Aug 8, Najib had filed the application to stay the tax suit proceedings pending his tax-reassessment appeal with IRB
The former premier claimed that he had a high chance of winning the appeal to have his taxes reassessed because donations allegedly formed a large portion of the funds from which the RM1.69 billion tax sum was calculated
Incidentally, on Aug 8, the government, through IRB, had also filed their application for summary judgment against Najib in the tax suit
Under Malaysia's civil law, summary judgment is a mode to dispose of legal action without going for a full trial, in clear cases where the defendant has no defence against the claim
In the summary judgment application, the IRB contended that Najib must still pay RM1.69 billion in tax despite his ongoing reassessment appeal with the board
The government filed the suit against Najib on June 25
It sought over RM1.69 billion from the former premier, with an annual five percent interest rate beginning from the date of judgment, as well as costs and other relief deemed fit by the court
In its statement of claim, the government said Najib had failed to pay his income taxes from 2011 to 2017 within the stipulated 30-day period after assessment notices were issued
As such, the amount owed each year was increased by 10 percent
It also said that Najib was given 60 days to pay the taxes, together with the 10 percent increase, but still failed to do so
Following this, Najib was slapped with another five percent increase in the 10 percent hike, bringing the total amount of income tax due to RM1,692,872,924.83
The final amount owed each year is as follows:2011: RM134,180,247.102012: RM370,674,071.812013: RM1,029,767,352.602014: RM137,612,077.112015: RM19,495,822.532016: RM743,179.212017: RM400,174.47- Mkini

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