1MDB tampered with own financial statements, says DAP’s Pua

Petaling Jaya Utara MP, Tony Pua shows reporters a copy of a document which he said has been amended by 1MDB to mislead its lenders. – The Malaysian Insider pic by Nazir Sufari, July 14, 2015.

DAP today said troubled state investor 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) may have tampered with financial documents regarding its 2014 audit.

The party's national secretary, Tony Pua said this concerned the latest audited financial statements for March 2014 to banks, which he said was different from the copy extracted from the Companies Commission of Malaysia (CCM).

The amendment, Pua said, was in regard to US$1.22 billion in funds, in which the word "utilised" was replaced with "set aside".

He said based on the copy obtained from CCM, the auditors confirmed that the amount had been redeemed or more or less used up.

"But by changing one word – from 'utilised' to 'set aside' – the audited accounts to the banks would provide a false assurance to the lenders that 1MDB had already set aside nearly US$1.22 billion of cash to pay them when the interest and loans become due.

"In fact, I have valid reasons to believe that the above isn't the only alteration on the 2014 financial statements by 1MDB," Pua said at a press conference in Kuala Lumpur today.

Pua said the alleged tampering was "grander" than what former PetroSaudi International director Xavier Justo has been accused of doing to emails and other documents about 1MDB.

The banks that had lent to 1MDB must now peruse the firm's financial statements with a fine-toothed comb to uncover all discrepancies between the original copy lodged with CCM and the doctored copy in their hands, the Petaling Jaya Utara MP said.

- TMI