KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 15): The High Court (Commercial division) has fixed Feb 11 next year to hear former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak's application to stay a US$8 billion lawsuit filed against him and 14 others by 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) and its subsidiaries for alleged breach of fiduciary duties.

At the same time, Judicial Commissioner Atan Mustaffa Yussof Ahmad granted the companies application to use substitute service to serve the legal documents to several defendants of the suits who are overseas, namely former 1MDB executives Terence Geh, Casey Tang, Jasmine Loo and Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil.

Geh was 1MDB deputy chief financial officer and Loo its former general counsel, while Tang was its executive director of business development and former chief investment officer, and Nik Faisal its chief executive officer. All have been named as defendants in the suit, along with 1MDB's former director of investments and chief investment officer Vincent Beng Huat Koh, former chief financial officer Radhi Mohamad, and former director of investments Kelvin Tan Kay Jim.

Geh, Tang, Loo and Nik Faisal reportedly left Malaysia before the 14th general election that was held on May 9, 2018.

1MDB's counsel Siva Kumar Kanagasabai confirmed the fixing of the hearing date when contacted by theedgemarkets.com on Friday.

According to Siva Kumar, Atan also gave various directives on the filing of affidavits in reply, and for written submissions to be made.

Koh's lawyers had already filed his defence and informed the court that he would apply to strike out the suit, said the 1MDB lawyer.

He added that the court had fixed Dec 1 as the next case management date.

It was reported last month that Najib, who is on trial for various 1MDB-related offences, wants to apply for a stay of the civil suit proceedings pending the outcome of his criminal trial.

This is one of six suits 1MDB filed last May. In this suit, it claimed that Najib, as former chairman of 1MDB's board of advisers, had approved or facilitated 1MDB and its subsidiaries to enter into sham agreements to create a circuitous trail of money to facilitate or conceal the misappropriation of 1MDB funds.

1MDB and its subsidiaries also contended that he disregarded his obligations under Article 117, and abused his powers in exercising his public functions to maliciously commit fraud and misappropriation, which resulted in the fraudulent transfer of funds and losses to them.

They contended that Najib should have foreseen the losses incurred due to such acts of misappropriation during each of the phases, losses which they said every Malaysian now has to bear.

They also claimed that Najib abused his position in causing further losses, and hence they are entitled to aggravated and exemplary damages because of his actions in obstructing and hindering investigations into the wrongdoings, whereby he obtained secret profits for himself or his agents.

They further alleged that Najib had taken advantage of his position and power to influence, facilitate and cause fraud so that the companies' management complied with his stated intentions that ran contrary to 1MDB’s corporate objectives, national interests and the interests of Minister of Finance Inc, to benefit his stepson Riza Aziz, Jho Low and others.

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Najib to apply for stay of proceedings in 1MDB’s US$8b civil suit — source