Malaysia 1MDB’s missing money problem grows

– AFP pic, September 18, 2015.Ten days after allegations surfaced that a US.4 billion (RM6.02 billion) payment in November 2014 from 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) to an Abu Dhabi state investor’s subsidiary was missing, The Wall Street Journal reported today that another US$1 billion remains unaccounted for.

The WSJ reported about a second missing money transfer from 1MDB to IPIC, an Abu Dhabi firm.

In a statement today, 1MDB ignored Pua’s repeated demand for answers about whether any money purportedly paid by 1MDB to global Petroleumn Investment Company of Abu Dhabi had gone missing, and instead reiterated that Pua should investigate a purported leak of parliamentary documents.

In the statement, 1MDB said WSJ’s report was “poorly sourced” and “sensationalist”.

But past year , both sides agreed to end the deal, with 1MDB agreeing to buy back the options for an undisclosed price, the report said.

Malaysian Prime Minister Mohd Najib Abdul Razak set up the fund in 2009, with the aim of investing in Malaysia’s economy.

The state-owned fund said: “Given the severity of the unproven allegations, the malicious insinuations made and the impact on the 1MDB rationalisation plan, we would have expected at the very least that the Wall Street Journal would have the decency and courage to name its source and/or provide proof”.

“It isn’t clear how IPIC arrived at the US$481.3 million figure and how it relates to the almost US$1 billion transfer 1MDB says it made to IPIC”, the report added.

“This is a clear scandal and a breach of Malaysian law”, it said. In exchange, IPIC was allowed to purchase a 49 per cent stake in those power assets.

On Monday, Switzerland’s federal prosecutor said Malaysia had agreed to arrange for Swiss investigators to interview witnesses in their investigation of alleged corruption and money laundering related to 1MDB.

1MDB said it could confirm that following to the payment made by it, the options were in fact, terminated.

The WSJ reported last week that IPIC did not receive a US$1.4 billion payment from 1MDB.

The 1MDB fund said last week that it stood by its audited financial accounts and that its auditor, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Ltd., had made “specific and detailed” inquiries into the collateral transfer before signing off on the accounts.

In the statement issued after this article was posted online, 1MDB said none of its executives or board members are the subject of criminal proceedings by the Swiss attorney general’s office, and that none of its accounts were frozen there.