Has MOF hatched a devious scheme to cover 1MDB losses?
The company seems to be inflating its land prices to excuse its RM42 billion debt burden.
(Free Malaysia Today) – Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua has expressed shock over Second Finance Minister Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah’s revised valuation of 1MDB’s real estate properties.
“I eagerly followed his live television interview with RTM1 to hear his explanation on where 1MDB’s money went.”
“While there were many other oft-repeated excuses to explain the ‘missing funds’ and his refusal to entertain questions with regards to the enigmatic Jho Low were widely publicized in news reports, the valuations were a new thing.”
He demands to know if the Second Finance Minister was spewing gibberish and just plucked these new outlandish valuations out of thin air to present an optimistic picture of 1MDB.
“How were these new valuations arrived at? Or are there more sinister reasons why the values have been massively inflated?”
Pua, who is also DAP National Publicity Secretary, said Husni Hanadzlah has let slip another bombshell during his RTM1 live interview on the valuation of 1MDB’s Tun Razak Exchange and Bandar Malaysia. As Husni rattled off the list of highly valued assets in 1MDB’s possession, noted Pua, he explained that the 70-acre Tun Razak Exchange (TRX) and 495-acre Bandar Malaysia are now worth RM7 billion and RM11 billion respectively.
“He argued that their combined value of RM18 billion will go a long way to prove that 1MDB will comfortably pay off its monster debts over the longer term.”
These revised valuations were shockers because even the previously revised valuations presented in the 31 March 2014 financial statements were only a fraction of the newly disclosed figures, said Pua.
“The Tun Razak Exchange land belonging to KLIFD Sdn Bhd was already then revalued to RM2.7 billion. Similarly, the Sg Besi military airbase land sold to Bandar Malaysia Sdn Bhd was then revalued to RM4.29 billion. These numbers add up to barely RM7 billion.”
The question hence is how did the valuations of these pieces of properties leap by 157 per cent in just one year?
