KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund 1MDB has withdrawn its US$248 million lawsuit against one of the producers of The Wolf of Wall Street, who is also the stepson of disgraced former premier Najib Razak.
The fund had accused Riza Aziz and his film companies of misappropriating US$248 million for financing movies and other activities when the multi-billion dollar financial scandal broke in the 2010s.
The sprawling case sparked investigations in the United States, Switzerland and Singapore, where the funds were allegedly laundered.
Riza’s lawyer confirmed to AFP on Tuesday that 1MDB had dropped the suit at the high court on Monday.
“Riza is relieved, but more so because this entire suit should never have proceeded to trial had 1MDB conducted their due diligence on the existence of the earlier global settlement upon being informed of the same through his statement of defence,” his lawyer Muhammad Farhan Muhammad Shafee told AFP.
AFP was unable to immediately obtain comment from 1MDB’s lawyer.
Farhan said there had been a global settlement under which Riza agreed not to challenge the US Department of Justice’s civil forfeiture against him in the US.
“My client was charged in 2019, and in 2020 the charges were dropped against him and there was a global settlement,” he said.
While 1MDB dropped charges against the producer, it then brought a lawsuit against him again in 2021, the lawyer said.
“Our defence in that matter is that you cannot file this claim as we have already settled,” he said.
In 2020, Malaysian prosecutors unexpectedly dropped the charges against Riza after he agreed to a deal that would see him return about US$107 million in assets to Malaysia.
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/malaysia-1mdb-lawsuit-wolf-wall-street-riza-aziz-4958641
