Pua rubbishes Najib's denials on TRX funds allegedly siphoned by 1MDB

Damansara MP Tony Pua has rubbished former premier Najib Abdul Razak's insistence that no funds intended for the Tun Razak Exchange project (TRX) had been siphoned by 1MDB as the parent company of TRX City Sdn Bhd.

In a statement, Pua said that the Pekan MP must decide between claiming that it would be "inappropriate" for him to answer 1MDB questions or constantly attempting to defend the "dodgy transactions" which have taken place in the state investor.

"He (Najib) cannot, on one hand, feign ignorance and blame the directors or management of the company, but at the same time, demonstrating detailed knowledge of the transactions which have taken place in 1MDB to justify, albeit misleadingly, the shenanigans which have taken place," said Pua.

Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng last week announced that the government has decided to inject RM2.8 billion for the TRX project because abandoning it would result in having to fork out RM3.51 billion in compensation.

Najib, in response, had accused Lim of spreading "half-truths and outright lies" over the TRX project.

Among others, Najib in a Facebook post said the allegedly misappropriated funds had been channelled as inter-company loans and had been repaid by 1MDB effective March 31 last year through a combination of cash repayments and a set-off against dividends paid by TRXC to 1MDB.

Pua, however, said Najib who had chaired 1MDB's advisory board should dwell less on accounting "gobbledygook" and instead clarify the Finance Ministry's recent discovery that RM3.067 million in construction funds was misappropriated for other purposes.

"Had the funds in TRXC been utilised for its projects in a transparent and accountable manner, the company would not have needed to seek the RM2.8 billion additional funding from the Finance Ministry for TRX in the first place.

"It is precisely, because of the misappropriation by 1MDB that the ministry is now forced to step in to rescue the project," said Pua.

Pua also pointed out that Najib had in an interview with Reuters last week claimed ignorance on financial matters which eventually led to 1MDB's massive losses.

"For Najib who had claimed in his earlier interview with Reuters last week that he was pretty much unaware the shenanigans which actually took place in 1MDB which resulted in billions of ringgit being siphoned and stolen, he was contradictorily and intimately knowledgeable on the transactions which took place between 1MDB and its wholly-owned subsidiary, TRXC.

"One is left to wonder if the above statement published on his (Najib)'s Facebook, was really written by himself, or by 1MDB’s disgraced CEO, Arul Kanda," said Pua who now serves as a temporary advisor to the Finance Ministry.

He further pointed out that Najib had merely explained how the two companies justified and ratified the accounting irregularities between the two companies without addressing the main issues around misappropriated funds or potential loss of profits from the TRX project.

"The fact that TRX might still be able to eke out a profit does not invalidate the fact that it is a bailout.

"This is because if not for the misappropriation, it would have meant that TRX could have made an additional RM3 billion in profits!" said Pua.

In making the announcement last week, the finance minister said the management of TRXC has been instructed to file reports with the 1MDB investigative panel and police regarding the misappropriated funds. -Mkini