Court orders fashion designer Jovian to cough up RM10mil

KUALA LUMPUR: Fashion designer Datuk Jovian Mandagie has been ordered by the High Court to pay RM10mil to two companies after he failed to settle two “friendly loans” of the same amount.

Justice Ahmad Fairuz Zainol Abidin made the order against Jovian, for him to pay RM5mil each to Cekap Air Sdn Bhd and Bina Pragmatik Sdn Bhd in a summary judgment in April.

The summary judgement was disclosed to the press yesterday.

A summary judgment is obtained when the court decides that the defendant has no triable issues in his defence and the case can be decided without a full trial.

The court also ordered a 5% interest per annum from the date of judgment until the full settlement to the plaintiffs and did not make any order as to costs.

It was understood that Jovian is appealing the decision.

Based on the statement of claims filed separately by the companies, Jovian was an acquaintance to company directors Yong Zhen Wei (Cekap Air) and Azirul Salihin (Bina Pragmatik).

On Feb 25, 2022, Cekap Air gave a RM5mil loan to Jovian, who made the request verbally, on a friendly basis.

The loan was then deposited into a client’s account of a law firm that represented Jovian.

Meanwhile, Bina Pragmatik also gave a RM5mil loan to Jovian on March 25, 2022.

The monies were transferred to the client’s account of the same law firm.

Both plaintiffs contended that the friendly loans must be paid back in 12 months.

They claimed that the loans were agreed upon orally and casually as the plaintiffs and the defendant were known to each other, and there was no reason to doubt Jovian as he owns several other businesses and was the then son-in-law of former prime minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob.

The plaintiffs stated that Jovian had never denied nor disputed that the monies were loans to him.

After a notice of demand dated April 5, 2023, was handed over to the defendant and the law firm that represented him, Jovian still failed, refused or neglected to pay back the amount, resulting in losses to the plaintiffs.

Jovian was previously married to Ismail Sabri’s daughter, Nina, and they have a daughter.

They divorced in August last year.

Last month, the media reported that Jovian had closed down the operations of Jovian Mandagie Couture and Jovian Ready-To-Wear (Jovian RTW) after 17 years in the fashion industry.