KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court has ordered Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor to pay RM67.5mil to Lebanon-based jeweller Global Royalty Trading SAL within one month over 43 pieces of jewellery that were not returned to them.
Rosmah claimed that the missing 43 pieces were seized by the authorities during a raid on May 17, 2018 at a unit in Pavilion where she was staying.
In his decision on Wednesday (June 10), Justice Quay Chew Soon said 44 pieces of jewellery were delivered to the defendant, Rosmah, in February, 2018, for viewing under a consignment arrangement.
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Rosmah, the wife of former Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, did not purchase the jewellery, and it remained the plaintiff's property.
"Once the defendant admitted delivery, consignment, possession, non-purchase, non-payment and the absence of ownership, the legal consequences flowing from those admissions became unavoidable," the judge said.
In such a situation, the judge added, the law imposed a burden upon Rosmah to properly account for the fate of the jewellery while under her custody.
"The defendant cannot merely say that there was a raid by the police, the items may have been seized, bodyguards handled the bags, or that the police took possession of certain items, and thereby hope to discharge the burden imposed upon her as a bailee.
"The law requires the defendant to do far more," Justice Quay said.
The judge said Rosmah must prove what precisely happened to the jewellery and that the 43 pieces were in fact seized by the authorities, that they remained intact and accounted for throughout the alleged chain of custody.
"The defendant has failed to do so. Her attempt to shift focus onto speculative explanations concerning the raid and seizure by the police is untenable.
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"The fact remains that the defendant failed to return the remaining 43 pieces and cannot satisfactorily account for their fate. In law, that constitutes prima facie negligence.
"Unless adequately rebutted, liability necessarily follows. The defendant has failed to rebut that presumption," Justice Quay said.
Rosmah's defence stated that the jewellery was moved from the official residence of the prime minister at Seri Perdana to the Pavilion unit and was subsequently seized by police during the raid on May 17, 2018.
She claimed the jewellery was "safely kept in a bag" and "stored under lock" until the raid, and that she remained ready and willing to return them.
The judge, however, found that Rosmah's defence collapsed under cross-examination after she admitted that she did not personally pack nor move the jewellery and that she did not supervise its transportation.
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These, he said, had undermined Rosmah's case.
The court also found that there was no contemporaneous list or inventory identifying all the 43 pieces of jewellery as seized property.
Only one item was positively identified after inspection exercises and forfeiture proceedings while the remaining 43 pieces remain unaccounted for.
"The present issue is not whether some jewellery items were seized during the police raid. The real issue is whether the defendant has proven that the remaining 43 pieces formed part of the seizure by the police. I find that the defendant has failed to do so," Justice Quay said.
For Rosmah's claim for an indemnity from third parties via third-party proceedings, the court also rejected this claim.
Rosmah had brought in the Inspector-General of Police and the government as third parties in the proceedings, seeking indemnity from third parties in respect of any sums she may be held liable to pay to the plaintiff.
The court then allowed the plaintiff's claim against Rosmah and ordered her to pay RM67,461,027.37 to the plaintiff within one month, and RM75,000 in costs each to the plaintiff and the third parties.
Global Royalty filed the suit on May 29, 2023, claiming that Rosmah had falsely claimed that 44 pieces of jewellery, including diamond necklaces, bracelets and tiaras, sent to her by the company's agent, were seized by Malaysian authorities under the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001.
The jeweller said only one out of 44 pieces they owned was retained by the police.
They further claimed that Rosmah had shifted the blame to the Malaysian Government when the jewellery had in fact gone missing.
Rosmah's lawyer Rajivan Nambiar told the media that they would be appealing the decision.
