Pua to Arul: Your cry wolf days are over
Pua made the call as a reaction to a statement Arul made yesterday in response to the Swiss Attorney-General’s announcement that it was investigating 1MDB’s transfer of US$3.51 billion to a British Virgin Islands company for fraud, forgery, bribery and money laundering.
In his statement, Arul said the Swiss announcement indicated that 1MDB might have been a victim of fraud.
“Sorry Arul, your cry wolf days are over,” said Pua in a press statement today.
“Nobody believes you any more. Not even Kinabatangan MP Bung Mokhtar from the Barisan Nasional, who has called for the police to conduct a criminal investigation to trace the missing 1MDB funds.”
Pua alleged that Arul was now trying to play the victim, “categorically and unequivocally denying any prior knowledge that Aabar BVI has been liquidated.”
“And if, indeed, you are really innocent and didn’t know that 1MDB parked billions of dollars to a company which has ceased to exist, that Aabar BVI was not related to IPIC (Abu Dhabi’s International Petroleum Investment Company), that a massive fraud might have taken place throughout your entire 14 months in 1MDB, then you should be sacked anyway for being utterly stupid, negligent and incompetent,” he said.
“Perhaps 1MDB should even consider charging you for misrepresentation on your resume as a ‘top investment banker’ and ‘debt-restructuring expert.’”
Pua recalled that he had asked for Arul to be investigated for alleged attempts to cover up the 1MDB scandal, particularly over the payment of US$3.51 billion to Aabar Investment PJS Limited (Aabar BVI), incorporated in the the British Virgin Islands.
“I had cited the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) proceedings as evidence that Arul Kanda was extremely coy and economical with his answers,” he said.
“He could not answer straightforward questions on whether 1MDB paid billions to Aabar (BVI) and whether Aabar (BVI) was related to the Aabar Investment PJS of Abu Dhabi. His shocking reply then was, ‘As far as [he] was aware, it is.’”
Pua also recalled that Arul was “notified” last September by the Wall Street Journal and other critics that IPIC did not have record of any of the US$3.51 billion purportedly paid by 1MDB in its financial statements for 2014 and 2015, which were audited by Ernst & Young and published on the London Stock Exchange.
He added that he had warned 1MDB in many statements since September 2015 about the need for 1MDB to confirm the whereabouts of these payments to Aabar (Abu Dhabi) or its parent, IPIC. “I had repeatedly asked 1MDB to issue a joint statement with IPIC to provide a consistent and clear clarification on where the US$1.4 billion ‘refundable deposit’ collateral parked with IPIC as well as the US$993 million payment to buy back the above options from IPIC had gone.”
Instead, he noted, Arul chose to repeatedly insist that “1MDB cannot speak on behalf of Aabar or IPIC, nor comment on the accounting arrangements of third parties. Of course, he waxed lyrical about how there was a malicious globally coordinated campaign against 1MDB and Malaysia. Arul Kanda repeatedly challenged WSJ and me to ‘provide proof of this malicious accusation.’
“He obviously didn’t care at all if the US$1.4 billion or the US$993 million was possibly missing then.”
He added that Arul was in constant and direct communication with IPIC since his appointment as 1MDB President and this communication covered issues regarding the on-going debt-asset swap arrangement which was signed with IPIC in May 2015 and which was due to be completed in June 2016.
“Now that it has indeed been proven that the money has gone missing, Arul Kanda turns around and says ‘Oops! Honest to God, I wasn’t aware that Aabar Investment PJS Limited wasn’t related to IPIC and didn’t know that it has already been dissolved nearly a year ago in June 2015.”
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