DAP lawmaker Tony Pua has questioned whether the new 1MDB board of directors will take action after whistleblower site Sarawak Report published a series of exposé on the auditor-general's report on 1MDB.
"What is the new 1MDB board of directors going to do about this new information, now that it has been made public?" Pua asked in a statement today.
He was referring to new information revealed by Sarawak Report's exposé, which involved 1MDB's Cayman Islands investment, the International Petroleum Investment Corporation's (IPIC) subsidiary Aabar Investments PJS as well as similarly named Aabar Investments PJS Limited, which was registered in the British Virgin Islands (BVI).
He pointed out that the previous board of directors had been forced to resign after the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) condemned them in its 1MDB report to Parliament.
"The question now is, will the new board of directors appointed on May 21, led by Treasury secretary-general Mohd Irwan Serigar, do a better and proper job?
"Together with the other two new board members, Kamal Mohd Ali and Norazman Ayub, are they going to demand answers to these new explosive allegations and act on them - including but not limited to filing police reports?
"It is part of the directors’ roles and responsibilities to investigate cases of fraud and report them accordingly to ensure the interests of the Malaysian taxpayers are fully protected," said the Petaling Jaya Utara MP.
Caymans funds revisited
Pua had previously questioned the same information, asking whether 1MDB auditors Deloitte Malaysia had been "bluffed" by 1MDB into believing that the troubled state fund had redeemed its controversial Cayman Islands investment in 2014.
Deloitte had been particularly insistent that the state fund was able to redeem most, if not all, of the investment, he said, adding that in 1MDB's March 2014 financial statement, it was stated the amount redeemed had been "substantially utilised for the purposes of debt interest payment, working capital and payments to Aabar (Investments PJS Ltd or Aabar BVI) as refundable deposits".
Following Sarawak Report's exposé, Pua had said there were concerns that no such money had been redeemed from the Cayman Islands-based investment fund.
According to Pua, it was found that 1MDB, through its wholly-owned subsidiary Global Investment Limited (1MDB GIL), had made several large payments to Aabar BVI in 2014.
“Why did 1MDB GIL pay Aabar BVI the money, even though there were no business transactions, agreements or dealings between the two entities?
"Why wasn’t these fund transfers disclosed and explained during (1MDB chief) Arul Kanda Kandasamy’s testimonies with the PAC?”
Pua alleged these transactions were meant to "hoodwink" Deloitte into accepting that the funds "purportedly received" from the Cayman Islands investment had been used to pay Aabar BVI.
Implications on IPIC arbitration
In his statement today, Pua revisited the issue, adding that the Sarawak Report articles would complicate 1MDB's case in the arbitration proceedings brought by IPIC against 1MDB.
IPIC and Aabar Investment PJS had both officially denied that Aabar (BVI) was ever related to their group, he pointed out.
"Assuming the leaked copy of the auditor-general's report is genuine, this is a massive allegation because for the first time, hard evidence is shown to incriminate 1MDB officials as parties colluding with the owners of the fake Aabar (BVI) – Mohamed Badawy Al Husseiny and Khadem al Qubaisi," Pua explained.
Those who would be incriminated, if the leak is genuine, include former 1MDB chief executive officers Shahrol Halmi and Mohd Hazem Abdul Rahman as well as current 1MDB president Arul Kanda, he said.
Khadem and Mohamed Badawy were former executives at IPIC and Aabar, who have both left their companies respectively and are reportedly being investigated by Abu Dhabi authorities.
1MDB had said that they paid US$3.5 billion to Aabar BVI after allegedly being assured by them that the BVI company was legitimate.
