Mahathir riddles 1MDB with questions, calls Arul a liar
Former PM says 1MDB’s lost billions is still questionable and drives home the point that Najib Razak must resign.
(Free Malaysia Today) – With so many questions still left unanswered and Arul Kanda Kandasamy of 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) caught lying on too many occasions, former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad said the president and chief executive director could no longer be taken at his word about the RM42 billion he tried explaining the whereabouts of recently.
He said Arul Kanda’s lies started with the USD1 billion in cash from the Cayman Islands that he purportedly said he saw with his own two eyes in a bank account in Singapore.
Mahathir’s grouse however is that “fantastic pile of dollar notes” later came to be known only as documents carrying false signatures that in turn became units.
“What units? Dunno. Which bank? Not clear. The mystery deepens,” Mahathir said in his blog today, calling the entire episode “embarrassing”.
He said this made him doubt Arul Kanda’s disclosure of 1MDB’s RM42 billion and asked, “Could it be something else that he saw which was not there? And do people use borrowed money to pay tax? What tax? No profit was declared but tax was paid. How much?
“Cost of managing 1MDB run into billions!”
He also zeroed in on Penang-born businessman Jho Low, a controversial figure in the 1MDB debacle and asked, “Has nothing been paid to Petro Saudi, to Jho Low, to Brazen Sky and others? Jho Low denies but why has he not proven that he did not receive US260 million (RM988 million) from 1MDB to buy a bank?”
He also asked why the shares in the power plant the company owned had not been listed and how the company was able to purchase government land cheap and sell it for a profit.
