Ganesh Sahathevan

While 1 MDB has been the subject of much criticism, this latest deal with IPIC does seem like one where the numbers add up. The deal as reported , this far, involves 2 limbs: a) A contribution of USD 1 billion from IPIC which 1 MDB is meant to use to settle a USD 975 million loan from a syndicate of Middle East banks led by Deutsche Bank b) A further contribution of some USD 4 billion, in exchange for undefined "financial assets". These numbers appear to match  those in the the following prior  transactions between 1 MDB and IPIC  as described by the  DAP's Tony Pua : “When 1MDB needed to raise funds in 2012 to acquire the independent power producers (IPPs), Tanjong Power and Genting Sanyen, 1MDB had to ask IPIC to provide a guarantee in order to raise the funds via two bond issues, each worth US$1.75 billion. The guarantee was necessary despite the fact that 1MDB priced the bonds very attractively at 5.99% coupon rate,” said Pua. Pua said the guarantee was no ...

As reported by Malaysiakini: The Finance Ministry(Malaysia) has corrected its parliamentary written reply in March that said the US$1.1 billion (RM3.97 billion) transferred by 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) from Cayman Islands to Singapore was in cash. According to the latest written reply to Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua, the Finance Ministry said the money that was "redeemed" was in the form of assets in US dollars. http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/298963 The problem for the Malaysian Ministry for Finance and indeed the Government is that the admission and consequent contradiction  ,regardless of the motives ,means that the  Delloites audit  of  the 1 MDB financial statements for at least the year ended 31 March  2014 is probably worthless. The audit was quite likely based on that sum of  US$1.1 billion (RM3.97 billion) being cash, not anything else. It is a material amount, so any admission that it is not in cash throws considerable doubt on the audi...