Yesterday, 1MDB made a rare statement in recent times, to “reiterate that it has not lost any money and that all its monies are fully accounted for”. The single sentence denial has absolutely no credibility and holds no water at all.
Firstly, if 1MDB money are fully accounted for, why haven’t 1MDB made any full disclosure of its accounts since 2014? In fact, 1MDB has not produced any legitimately audited accounts since March 2012 after Deloitte Malaysia withdrew their endorsement for 1MDB’s March 2013 and 2014 financial statements.
Even when repeatedly requested by the Auditor-General (AG) and the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), 1MDB has not only refused to submit its updated financial statements, the Ministry of Finance (MoF)-owned subsidiary refused to even handover a single bank statement of its accounts with foreign banks. It does not take a genius to figure out that 1MDB has more than something to hide.
This is the very reason why the PAC could never have exonerated the Prime Minister of stealing from 1MDB because the AG and the PAC were never given the necessary documents to verify that such illicit transfer of funds never took place.
Today, even when I had asked for a simple listing of the debts still being held by 1MDB, as well as the debts assumed by the Ministry of Finance, gets rejected by the Parliamentary Speaker.
Secondly, 1MDB’s denial holds no credibility because its Board of Directors and top management are proven liars.
Among other things, 1MDB has lied to everyone about the nature of its joint-venture with Petrosaudi International Limited, which masked the transfer of US$1.03 billion it to the bank account of Good Star Limited in Switzerland. 1MDB repeatedly testified that Good Star was a subsidiary of Petrosaudi, before Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) subsequently confirmed that Good Star’s sole shareholder was the fugitive Jho Low.
1MDB lied about the fact that the 1MDB Board of Directors had approved the deal with Petrosaudi, when the former Chairman of 1MDB, Tan Sri Bakke Salleh quit his position precisely because he was furious and wants no part in the multi-billion ringgit embezzlement which was taking place. This was confirmed when Tan Sri Bakke testified to the PAC.
The current President and CEO of 1MDB, Arul Kanda himself has repeatedly lied to both the public and the PAC, with perpetually shifting stories about 1MDB’s purported redemption of its US$2.3 billion “units” held in BSI Bank, Singapore. The 143 year old Swiss Bank had its license withdrawn by the Monetary Authority of Singapore, and has since collapse in the light of the 1MDB scandal. While the Bank has collapsed, where are the US$2.3 billion (or whatever balance of the investment) units today?
The list of lies from 1MDB is endless.
Finally, the reason why the Board and the top management of 1MDB are pathological liars are obvious and perhaps, understandable. They are the integral part of the conspiracy by top leaders of the country to steal tens of billions of ringgit from the Malaysian tax-payers. The mother of the mother of the mother of all scandals has already precitipated the single largest anti-kleptocracy legal suits by the United States Department of Justice.
Hence, given that the Board and top management of 1MDB part of the part of the kleptocracy scam, how do they expect Malaysians to believe their denial of the ownership of more than RM400 million confiscated by the Swiss authorities?