The daily said that in the first deal, PetroSaudi was supposed to put in non-cash assets of US$1.5 billion to make it a US$2.5 billion joint venture.
However, the newspaper said PetroSaudi never owned the main asset it was to put in farming rights to oil fields in Turkmenistan.
The joint venture was eventually called off but 1MDB never got back its cash, instead ending up with murabaha and promissory notes.
The newspaper said while 1MDB was given virtually worthless papers, the US$1.83 billion cash it had put in went to the various accounts of those involved at several global banks in New York, Switzerland, London and Singapore.
The banks included JP Morgan, RBS Coutts, Credit Suisse, HSBC and BSI Bank. This points to fraud and international money laundering.
The newspaper produced a large flow chart of the money flow put together from bank statements of senders and receivers.
It went on to explain how 1MDB was now trying to cover the hole caused by the venture with PetroSaudi by paying termination fees of around US$2.22 billion to Aabar Investments to retire options issued to the latter.
It said two 1MDB directors, including Bakke Mohd Salleh, had resigned over a payment of US$700 million to Good Star Limited without board consent and in breach of Bank Negara's approval.
In a note to readers, publisher Ho Kay Tat said that the media outlet had a public duty to report the scam to cheat Malaysia of billions of ringgit. He said this would likely be the last report on the matter and that it would be handing over whatever it had to the agencies investigating 1MDB.
"How can what we have done be deemed as political conspiracy?" he asked.
The daily and its sister publication The Edge Weekly have been issued a show-cause letter by the Home Ministry over its reporting of 1MDB.
- TMI
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