The Singapore Business Times report on 1MDB’s Cayman Islands funds. – The Malaysian Insider pic, February 7, 2015.PKR wants Bank Negara Malaysia to probe into 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) following a Singapore Business Times report that the remaining US$1.103 billion (RM3.91 billion) Cayman Islands funds will not be repatriated back to Malaysia.
Party secretary-general Rafizi Ramli said both the central bank and Finance Ministry should act against the strategic development firm.
"This is against 1MDB's earlier statement which confirmed that the money had been brought back after the company was criticised for its less-than-transparent transactions in the Cayman Islands," he said in a statement today.
Last month, 1MDB newly minted president and group executive director Arul Kanda Kandasamy had said the company had redeemed in full the US$2.318 billion (RM8.24 billion) invested in a Caymans-registered fund.
In a statement, 1MDB had said it had previously redeemed US$1.215 billion, which is 60% of the funds invested, and has now taken back the remaining US$1.103 billion.
In its report today, Singapore Business Times quoted Arul Kanda as confirming the US$1.103 billion would not be brought back to the country as it would be used to service interest payments on US dollar debts.
Rafizi said Arul Kanda's statement today proved that not only 1MDB's investments are facing problems, but it gives an impression that its management was not transparent.
He added he had previously demanded that Bank Negara confirm if the monies had really repatriated back into the country.
Citing the Anti-Money Laundering Act, the Pandan MP had previously urged Bank Negara to prove that the company's fund in the Caymans had been repatriated by disclosing the local bank holding the funds and whether the firm has enough to pay off its RM2 billion debt.
1MDB has come under fire from Rafizi and other opposition politicians as well as former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad over the fund's heavy debts, its use of money and its opaque operations.
There were massive concerns over the firm burgeoning debts estimated at some RM40 billion, just five years into its operations, amid softening of the ringgit against the US dollars.
Dr Mahathir had joined others like Rafizi and DAP's Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua to questions the whereabouts of the money kept in the Caymans, after rejecting the explanation given by 1MDB, citing it as "shallow".
In an exclusive interview with online news portal Sarawak Report on January 16, Malaysia's longest serving prime minister echoed the concerns raised by opposition party DAP on the fund which is in excess of RM8 billion.
“The explanation does not enlighten us on anything. I want to know which bank it’s kept in now.
"A billion dollars. You must keep it somewhere, you see. I don’t know where the money is. That is part of transparency," the Dr Mahathir had said.
The strategic investment fund, the brainchild of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and owned by the government, was to have brought back its Cayman funds before the end of November as agreed with its auditors, Deloitte Malaysia.
Pua previously questioned if 1MDB had misled Deloitte over the timeline of the repatriation of the funds because of the delay.
He said with the lack of details, Arul would be doing himself "great injustice if he doesn't wipe the slate clean and increase transparency to rescue and rebuild the troubled company".
- TMI
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.