KUALA LUMPUR (April 24): 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) on Wednesday failed in its bid to have its US$250 million suit against Riza Aziz, Red Granite Pictures Inc, and Red Granite Capital Ltd heard by the same High Court, where a related 1MDB claim involving Riza's stepfather Datuk Seri Najib Razak is set to commence.

1MDB’s lawyers were seeking to transfer the case from the High Court presided by Judicial Commissioner Datuk Raja Ahmad Mohzanuddin Shah Raja Mohzan to judge Atan Mustaffa Yussof Ahmad’s court, on the grounds that cases of the former prime minister and Riza are related.

In his decision, Raja Ahmad said the court did not have the jurisdiction to transfer the case to another High Court.

1MDB's application was contested by Riza and his lawyers, Muhammad Farhan Muhammad Shafee and Genevieve Vanniasingham.

Rabindra S Nathan and Lim Jun Rui represented 1MDB.

Previously, Raja Ahmad had fixed 14 days from Oct 16 to Nov 4 to hear the case.

1MDB, along with 1MDB Energy Ltd, 1MDB Energy Holdings Ltd and 1MDB Energy (Langat) Ltd, filed the suit in May 2021. The companies claimed that Riza had misappropriated their funds from fugitive Low Taek Jho (more commonly known as Jho Low), or was willful and reckless in failing to make relevant inquiries as to the sources of the funds.

They said the first tranche of payment of more than US$10.173 million made to Riza was from Good Star Ltd, a company controlled by Jho Low, and that the US$238 million that Red Granite Capital received was actually from bonds raised by 1MDB for the purchase of several power plants.

Riza, in his defence, claimed that the US$10 million was borrowed from the Saudi royal family, while the US$238 million was borrowed from Abu Dhabi-based International Petroleum Investment Company. He also claimed to have paid the US$10 million back to the Saudi royal family.