The House of Cards on 1MDB has started to collapse, added the MP. “1MDB made at least USD3.51 billion of payments to British Virgin Islands-registered ‘Aabar Investment PJS Limited’ which was completely unrelated to IPIC.’
Hence, said Pua, it’s crystal clear that there are parties in 1MDB who have acted in cahoots with IPIC’s former top officials to scam Malaysians of billions of dollar. “1MDB borrowed USD3.5 billion with the guarantee provided by IPIC for the purpose of acquiring power companies in Malaysia.”
However, he continued, the entire sum and more have been clearly embezzled to an entity, Aabar Investment PJS Ltd, whose real beneficial ownership remains a mystery till today.
Arul Kanda’s refusal to provide a straight answer to earlier questions only goes to prove that he was fully aware that 1MDB had signed agreements and paid billions of dollars to a fake Aabar BVI which was completely unrelated to IPIC, charged Pua. “It also means that Arul Kanda and 1MDB have deceived the Auditor-General and the PAC by their failure to disclose and explain the truth during hearings.”
Malaysians are actually more “curious” why 1MDB paid billions of dollars to the fake Aabar, ventured Pua. “We are also curious why it has taken so long for 1MDB to finally ‘admit’ to the misappropriation since the matter was exposed by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) in November last year.”
Despite repeated questions by the global media and critics like him, Arul Kanda had stubbornly refused to address the question of who really owns Aabar BVI, recalled Pua. “Instead, he chose to repeatedly recycle the allegations that we are part of a global malicious conspiracy aiming to discredit 1MDB and the Malaysian Government.”
Again, Pua was reiterating on Abu Dhabi’s state-owned International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC) confirming on Monday that neither itself nor its unit Aabar Investments PJS have any links to a British Virgin Islands-incorporated firm named “Aabar Investment PJS Limited” (Aabar BVI). “Both IPIC and Aabar confirm that Aabar BVI was not an entity within either corporate group… Further, both IPIC and Aabar confirm that neither has received any payments from Aabar BVI nor has IPIC or Aabar assumed any liabilities on behalf of Aabar BVI,” Pua quoted IPIC as saying in a statement on the London Stock Exchange.
This is a shocking announcement because it has finally confirmed what critics of 1MDB has suspected all along, that 1MDB has been making billions of dollar of payments to a fictitious Aabar BVI, pretending that it was payments to the real Aabar of Abu Dhabi, lamented Pua. “It’s clear now that 1MDB was never able to provide the proof of ownership of Aabar BVI, because Aabar BVI was clearly a fake entity created to siphon the USD3.51 billion or more from 1MDB.”
“The WSJ had earlier also alleged that Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak had received USD681 million from Aabar BVI via intermediaries, which he claims was a donation.”
In addition, said Pua, the WSJ also alleged that Red Granite Pictures which produced “The Wolf of Wall Street” received USD155 million of funding, directly and indirectly from Aabar BVI.
Pua noted that 1MDB had issued an immediate response to IPIC’s announcement claiming that it “finds it curious that IPIC and Aabar have waited until April 2016 to issue such a statement”. However, pointed out Pua, the timing of IPIC’s announcement isn’t surprising because Reuters recently reported that two key former IPIC and Aabar officials, Khadem Al Qubaisi and Mohamed Badawy Al Husseiny, have been arrested by the Abu Dhabi authorities.
The recently tabled PAC Report also confirmed that the Auditor-General was unable to verify these payments to Aabar BVI, which included USD1.367 billion in “refundable security deposits” paid in 2012 which was to act as a collateral for the USD3.5 billion bond guarantee provided by IPIC, said the MP. “Subsequently, 1MDB paid USD993 million to terminate the options granted to Aabar BVI, as well as a further USD855 million and USD295 million as unexplained ‘top up security deposits’.”
“The Auditor-General also lamented that 1MDB not only did not provide any bank statements of its foreign bank accounts, it failed to provide any documentary evidence of who are the owners of Aabar BVI.”