Rafizi claims bankruptcy notice a ‘political game’

(MMO) – PKR’s Rafizi Ramli criticised the National Feedlot Corporation (NFC) and its chairman today for advertising a notice of bankruptcy against him in a newspaper instead of submitting a writ to him properly.

The PKR vice president said the standard procedure was for the plaintiff in a defamation suit, in this case being NFC and NFC chairman Datuk Seri Dr Mohamad Salleh Ismail, to personally submit a writ to demand for the RM300,000 awarded by the Shah Alam High Court as damages and cost.

In the writ, he said, the plaintiff must specify how much he owed, noting that there were interests, which he had to pay as well.

Rafizi claimed that he only noticed the writ, which was dated September 14 and gave him until September 21 to pay up, at home on September 19 and it was only pasted on the door on September 18. He said he was in Sitiawan on September 20, had a court case on September 21 and the following day was a public holiday.

“The childish act by not personally giving me the notice with the exact amount that I have to pay will be ridiculed by the public,” Rafizi said in a statement.

The Pandan MP, nevertheless, said that his lawyers would calculate the exact amount on their own and personally pass the cheque to Salleh and NFC tomorrow.

By putting the matter up in the newspaper, Rafizi said he felt that it was done out bad intention with the purpose of tarnishing his name.

Last November, the High Court ordered Rafizi to pay Salleh and NFC RM200,000 in damages for stating that a loan taken by the feedlot was used to purchase a condominium at KL Eco City.

Upon finding Rafizi’s statement, which indicated that public funds were used as collateral, as defamatory, the court ordered that he paid RM150,000 to Salleh and RM50,000 to NFC.

Rafizi was also ordered to pay RM100,000 for legal costs.

It was subsequently reported that Rafizi had raised RM1.5 million from public donations to help pay for the suit.

He had said that RM300,000 from funds received from the public would be given to this legal team to comply with the court order.

New Sunday Times today reported that an advertisement on the notice had been published in the Berita Harian Malay daily yesterday.