Two defendants in the Human Resources Development Fund (HRDF)'s RM26.4 million lawsuit claimed that the fund's allegations of fraudulent or negligent misrepresentation were misconceived and misplaced.

Claiming as such in their Statement of Defence were Smart Trends International Sdn Bhd (STI) as well as Emmanuel Benson Abdullah who were listed as first and second defendants in the suit.

Former HRDF CEO CM Vignaesvaran Jeyandran and its former chief special purpose vehicle officer Muhammad Ghazali Abdul Aziz were listed third and fourth defendants respectively.