Husni Hanadzlah and the misrepresentation of 1MDB facts
For a Finance Minister of Husni’s calibre it is indeed worrying that he sees nothing wrong for a company with only RM1 million paid up capital could acquired and accumulated over RM42 billion of debts in a span of just 5 years. And he said that proudly in the show as if it is a form of accomplishment of sorts.
Upon hearing that the cabinet has appointed the 2nd Finance Minister (Dato Seri Husni Hanadzlah) as the official spokesperson of 1MDB, we immediately tweeted below:
WHAT WE TWEETED ON 29TH MAY 2015
A few hours ago Husni Hanadzlah was interviewed by two RTM1 hosts in a show entitled “1MDB: Di mana wangnya?”
We had asked in the previous article 5 questions, of which none of it was answered by him. This is of course not a fault of his as a few of the questions, however frequently asked, weren’t asked by the host at all.
Even when it come to Jho Low, Husni only said that he does not want the former to be glamourous.
But what is more alarming is the fact that Husni gave a lot of misrepresentation of facts.
1) LIE number 1:
When the host pressured the minister about Sarawak Report’s expose on Good Star Ltd (Jho Low’s company) receiving USD700 million, Husni claimed that Petro Saudi had lodged a police report in London saying what the portal had published was not true.
This is a lie.
PetroSaudi did not make a police report saying the portal was inaccurate. They made a police report when its email server was hacked; indirectly admitting that the emails published were indeed true.
If indeed Sarawak Report had published lies, 1MDB would have sued the portal and its editor a long time ago.
Husni lied to deflect the allegation of USD700 million of 1MDB’s money being siphoned out to Jho Low. With this lie, we can almost say that the transaction was indeed true. But what Husni could only say was: “We got back our initial investment of US$1 billion and returns from the joint venture. So there is no issue of Jho Low in this.”
Well, that is of course how siphoning money works. You cover the tracks by saying no money is lost.
2) LIE number 2:
When asked why did 1MDB changed auditors, Husni said that they chose Deloitte because auditors have to be rotated and it was time for KPMG to be changed after 3 years being an auditor.
This is a lie.
First off, KPMG was not changed because it was due to be rotated (in practice, this seldom happens as audit firms will fight tooth and nail to retain their client, and the audit fees). They were changed and replaced midway while auditing the the Financial Year 2013.
KPMG themselves were very reluctant to disclose why they were replaced – a peculiar behaviour for what should is touted as a ‘normal’ rotation exercise.
Husni had to lie about this to give confidence to the public that there is nothing wrong in the 1MDB accounts.
3) LIE number 3:
Husni had said that due to 1MDB’s joint venture with PetroSaudi, Prasarana was able to operate the Arafah – Mina Metro System in Mecca in May 2015.
This is absolutely not true.
Prasarana won the contract to be the operator without any involvement of any 1MDB or PetroSaudi. In fact his statement had greatly under-appreciated the effort by Prasarana for the past many months.
Obviously, losing all arguments as to why 1MDB had to be involved in a joint venture with PetroSaudi, Husni had to justify the partnership with an outright lie.
