KUALA LUMPUR: Former economy minister Rafizi Ramli’s move to initiate bankruptcy proceedings against National Feedlot Corporation Sdn Bhd (NFCorp) director Mohamad Salleh Ismail and winding-up proceedings against the company have been amicably resolved.
This was confirmed by Rafizi’s lawyer, Razlan Hadri Zulkifli.
The case was scheduled to be heard before High Court judicial commissioner Gan Techiong today, but the hearing was vacated following a notice of discontinuance filed on March 3.
The court subsequently struck out the case without an order as to costs.
Rafizi, the Pandan MP, filed the suit seeking court permission to commence the bankruptcy and winding-up proceedings over their alleged failure to settle the remainder of court-ordered costs.
The court order, stemming from a defamation suit filed against Rafizi, required payment in damages and costs, excluding interest.
It was previously reported that Rafizi had acknowledged payments of RM300,000 by Salleh and NFCorp, made through their solicitors in December 2022. The exact outstanding amount being pursued by Rafizi was not specified.
The defendants had asked for the interest to be set aside due to their “substantial financial liability”. Although Rafizi’s lawyers rejected the request, the defendants made no further payments.
In 2016, the High Court here ordered Rafizi to pay RM150,000 in damages to Salleh and RM50,000 in damages to NFCorp after allowing their suit against him. Rafizi was also ordered to pay Salleh RM100,000 in costs.
In 2019, the Court of Appeal allowed Rafizi’s appeal and ordered the return of RM200,000 in damages and RM100,000 in costs previously paid to Salleh and NFCorp.
The court also awarded a further RM110,000 in costs at the appeal stage.
In April 2022, the decision was upheld by the Federal Court which also ordered the payment of RM70,000 in costs to Rafizi.
