“This is an international money laundering operation involving Malaysian taxpayers funds,” added Pua, who is also DAP National Publicity Secretary, in a statement.
He demanded that action be taken against all parties who approved and abetted illicit transactions. “The integrity of the local and international financial system is at stake.”
The latest documents exposed by the Sarawak Report (SR) sees 1MDB Chief Arul Kanda caught with his pants down, warned the MP. “They prove that he lied and withheld crucial information from the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC).”
Pua hazards a guess that “this would be the real reason” why Arul Kanda refused to produce simple bank statements of 1MDB Global Investement Limited (GIL) to even the Auditor-General (A-G) despite repeated requests to do so.
The latest expose by SR raises the question as to whether UBS Singapore will be investigated and action taken against the Bank, he continued. He pointed out that SR highlighted the failure of UBS Bank Singapore, which received the money on behalf of Aabar (BVI), to properly ascertain the purpose, source and recipient of the funds.
The bigger question that arises was why 1MDB GIL made a USD1.279 billion payment to Aabar (BVI) in the first place.
Pua wants Arul Kanda to explain why 1MDB GIL paid USD1.279 billion to Aabar Investment PJS Limited when there was no business relationship between the two entities
He was commenting on SR exposing another set of banking transaction documents separate from the classified Auditor-General’s (A-G) Report on 1MDB.
It showed that 1MDB Global Investment Limited paid a total of USD1,279,347,500 between 12 September and 4 November 2014 to the British Virgin Islands (BVI) incorporated Aabar Investment PJS Limited.
The story, as pieced together by SR, shows that 1MDB GIL had borrowed USD3 billion in March 2013 “purportedly to form a joint venture company with Abu Dhabi’s Aabar Investment PJS to develop the Tun Razak Exchange in Kuala Lumpur”.
However, the joint venture did not materialise.
If the joint venture was as good as dead, as testified by Arul Kanda before the PAC in January 2016, there was no reason for 1MDB GIL to make the USD1.279 billion payment to Aabar (BVI) in 2014. “Arul Kanda did not disclose the payment to the PAC,” recalled Pua.
According to 1MDB’s financial statements, 1MDB GIL was left with only USD1.56 billion invested “in various investment portfolios under the custody of a licensed financial institution”. The rest of the funds had already been used up “for working capital and debt repayment purposes” by 31 March 2014.
Arul Kanda had also testified that the USD1.56 billion of 1MDB GIL investments were intact and would be possibly utilised as part of 1MDB’s rationalisation exercise. However, asked the MP, if the USD1.56 billion was indeed intact, then how did 1MDB GIL make the USD1.279 billion in cash payments to Aabar (BVI).
1MDB GIL is a wholly-owned foreign subsidiary of 1MDB. Aabar (BVI), charged Pua, has been exposed as a fraudulent entity pretending to be the subsidiary of Abu Dhabi’s International Petroleum Investment Corporation (IPIC).
The Monetary Authority of Singapore has already shut down another Swiss Bank, BSI Singapore, in May for serious breaches of anti-money laundering requirements. The authority also cited poor management oversight of the bank’s operations, and gross misconduct by some of the bank’s staff.