Arul Kanda a liar, should be sacked, says Pua

Based on Prime Minister Najib’s statement, he lied about having USD1.1 billion in S’pore.

KUALA LUMPUR: 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) President and Executive Director, Arul Kanda Kandasamy, must be sacked immediately for lying to Malaysians about having USD1.1 billion cash in Singapore.

“Its non-existent,” noted Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua who is also DAP National Publicity Secretary.

Pua, in making the call, was expressing complete and utter shock on Prime Minister and Finance Minister Najib Abdul Razak confirming two days ago that 1MDB has no cash redeemed from the Cayman investment. Instead, whatever was held in BSI Bank was only in the form of “assets”.

There was no clarity as to the nature and value of these “assets”, added Pua, “which may be worthless for all we know”.

When questioned in Parliament, Pua recalled, Najib confirmed in writing on 10 March 2015 that the USD1.103 billion held in cash was parked with the Swiss branch of BSI Bank in Singapore.

In effect, lamented Pua, “we know now that all the new 1MDB President executed was a ‘slight-of-hand’ transaction by just moving the ‘assets’ to BSI Bank. He then pretended that the moving of assets to be a ‘redemption exercise’.”

“There was in fact no actual sale of the Cayman assets.”

Arul Kanda then tried to bluff Malaysians, as if they were gullible, that 1MDB got back all it’s money and even “made a profit of USD488 million” in the entire Petrosaudi to Cayman transactions, pointed out Pua.

To arrest the persistent queries over the nature and whereabouts of the redeemed funds, continued the MP, “Arul Kanda then blatantly lied by assuring us that ‘the cash was in US dollars’ and that he has ‘seen the statements’.”

“He even cooked up the excuse that the money needs to be kept in US dollars because it was needed to service the interest of 1MDB’s US dollar bonds.”

All this proves that Arul Kanda was an unscrupulous liar and a man without any honesty and integrity, stressed Pua. “His continued leadership of 1MDB will certainly hamper the discovery of the truth and the culprits, and this may result in further unbearable losses to the financially stricken company.”

“Najib and the Board of Directors of 1MDB will have no other choice but to immediately relieve Arul Kanda of his roles and duties in 1MDB.”

He warned that failure to immediately sack Arul Kanda will further taint the Prime Minister and the Board of Director’s culpability for the monstrous sins on 1MDB. Instead of using his “wealth of experience” to ensure that 1MDB stops leaking and starts taking full responsibilities for its financial crisis, reiterated Pua, Arul Kanda has chosen to cover up the highly dubious transactions in the company and blatantly lied to the people.

Arul Kanda Kandasamy was appointed as President and Group Executive Director of 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) on 5 January 2015. The Chairman of 1MDB, Lodin Wok Kamaruddin, explained the appointment as follows:

“Arul brings a wealth of experience from the financial world and a proven track record of transforming businesses. His transaction expertise and operational excellence will be invaluable to 1MDB as it undertakes a strategic review of the business, the objective of which was to ensure that 1MDB is best positioned to fully realize value from its investment portfolio and fulfill its broader economic objectives.”

In one of his first 1MDB transactions, on 13 January 2015, Arul Kanda announced that the company “has now redeemed in full the USD2.318 billion invested by the company in a Cayman Islands registered fund”. By redeemed, it was reckoned that 1MDB had sold its investments based in Cayman Islands for USD2.318 billion and the money was received by 1MDB.

Arul Kanda subsequently confirmed the presumption in an interview with the Singapore Business Times published on 7 February. He announced that while the funds amounting to USD1.103 billion would not be repatriated back to Malaysia, it would be kept in US dollars “as we have USD6.5 billion (RM23.06 billion) in bonds out there, in which interest payments come up to nearly USD400 million (RM1.4 billion) a year”.

The 1MDB President specifically stated, “the cash is in our accounts and in US dollars. I can assure you (about that)… I have seen the statements.”