KUALA TERENGGANU: A member of the Terengganu royal family has filed a civil suit against two banking institutions, alleging negligence that led to the loss of RM1.99 million from his savings accounts.
Tengku Ismail Tengku Ibrahim, 65, filed the writ of summons against the two banking institutions at the Kuala Terengganu High Court today through his lawyers, Alif Danial Ahmad Shahrulnizam and Hazwan Hamidun.
Alif Danial said his client, a businessman, is seeking the recovery of the full amount from both banks.
"The lawsuit concerns the loss of money belonging to our client involving the actions of scammers. We are suing both banks over alleged negligence in handling the disputed transactions," he told reporters at the court complex.
Alif Danial said his client was also seeking general damages for the emotional distress and hardship suffered as a result of the incident, as well as legal costs and other relief deemed appropriate by the court.
According to the statement of claim accompanying the writ, Tengku Ismail, who said he had never used any online banking application, only discovered in January that most of the funds in his savings accounts with the two banks had disappeared.
When he visited the respective bank branches, he found that the remaining balances in the accounts were only RM73 and RM99.
Further checks allegedly revealed that the suspicious withdrawal transactions took place between September and December last year.
Tengku Ismail lodged a police report over the missing funds at the Kuala Terengganu police station on Jan 15.
The plaintiff contends that he never authorised any third party to activate or access online banking facilities on his behalf, transfer funds from his accounts or approve any of the disputed transactions.
He further alleges that the two banks were negligent in allowing online banking facilities to be activated without his consent and in failing to monitor, detect or block suspicious transactions.
The suit seeks to hold both financial institutions liable for the alleged losses and to recover the disputed funds, together with damages and other relief sought.