KUALA LUMPUR: The class action lawsuit filed in the United States by Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s former political secretary Matthias Chang, and former Pas vice-president Datuk Husam Musa was dismissed yesterday.
According to entertainment portal The Hollywood Reporter, Chang and Husam had moved to voluntarily dismiss the suit without prejudice.
The duo had filed the lawsuit against 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB), Goldman Sachs, film producer Riza Aziz, as well as his company Red Granite Pictures on Aug 11, 2016.
Red Granite Pictures had produced the Oscar-nominated film The Wolf of Wall Street.
It is understood that the lawsuit was dismissed on Friday afternoon. No reason was given over the dismissal.
Sources alleged that the lawsuit had merely "regurgitated" allegations from the US Department of Justice civil lawsuits, as well as claims published in The Wall Street Journal.
It is also understood that while the lawsuit was announced in numerous media outlets, including Hollywood industry publications, the plaintiffs never served the defendants, or formally gave notice of the lawsuit.
As such, the lawsuit, claimed sources, appeared to be a pure publicity stunt.
"Goldman Sachs and Red Granite are companies – they’re not hard to find. The fact that the plaintiffs never tried to serve them means they never intended to pursue their claims, which were legally frivolous and a pure publicity stunt to influence perceptions and cause reputation damage," said a source.
Meanwhile, Red Granite Pictures issued a brief statement on the lawsuit's dismissal.
“Dismissing this frivolous lawsuit was the right thing to do because it never should have been filed in the first place. Red Granite continues to work on exciting new projects," the statement read.
Meanwhile, Minister of Communications and Multimedia Datuk Seri Salleh Said Keruak questioned why the Wall Street Journal and other Western media have yet to report on the lawsuit's dismissal.
"The reality is that it was baseless from the start, a pure publicity stunt to manipulate public perceptions, and part of Tun Mahathir's plan to sabotage 1MDB and damage Malaysia's economy to unseat the democratically-elected government," he said in a statement today.
Salleh said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak's real record has just been stated by UNESCO's Director-General Irina Bokova.
Bokova had praised Malaysia's firm stance against violent extremism through inclusion and education, which UNESCO deems the most effective long-term prevention to forces threatening to divide societies
Salleh said the government would not be distracted by Tun Mahathir's "increasingly desperate attempts."
"The Prime Minister will continue to serve the people and prioritise their security, safety and prosperity," he said.