The House of Cards have started to collapse - 1MDB paid at least US$3.51 billion to Aabar BVI which is unrelated to IPIC

Abu  Dhabi’s  state-owned  International  Petroleum  Investment  Company (IPIC) today said neither itself  nor its  unit  Aabar Investments  PJS have any links to a British Virgin Islands-incorporated firm named “Aabar Investment PJS Limited” (Aabar BVI).

“Both  IPIC  and  Aabar  confirm  that  Aabar  BVI  was  not  an  entity  within  either  corporate group... Further, both IPIC and Aabar confirm that neither has received any payments from Aabar BVI nor has IPIC or Aabar assumed any liabilities on behalf of Aabar BVI.” IPIC said in a statement on the London Stock Exchange.

This is a shocking announcement because it has finally confirmed what critics of 1MDB has suspected all along, that 1MDB has been making billions of dollar of payments to a fictitious Aabar BVI, pretending that it was payments to the real Aabar of Abu Dhabi.

The recently tabled PAC Report also confirmed that the Auditor-General was unable to verify these payments to Aabar BVI, which included US$1.367  billion in “refundable security deposits” paid in 2012 which was to act as a collateral for the US$3.5 billion bond guarantee provided  by  IPIC. Subsequently, 1MDB  paid  US$993  million  to  terminate  the  options granted to Aabar BVI, as well as a further US$855 million and US$295 million as unexplained “top up security deposits”.

The Auditor-General also lamented that 1MDB not only did not provide any bank statements of its foreign bank accounts, it failed to provide any documentary evidence of who are the owners of Aabar BVI.

It is clear now that 1MDB was never able to  provide the proof of ownership of Aabar BVI, because Aabar BVI is clearly a fake entity created to siphon the US$3.51 billion or more from 1MDB.

The Wall Street Journal had earlier also alleged that the Dato’ Seri Najib Razak has received US$681 million from Aabar BVI via intermediaries, which the Prime Minister claims was a donation.

In addition, the Wall Street Journal also alleged that Red Granite Pictures which produced “The Wolf of  Wall  Street” received  US$155  million  of  funding,  directly  and  indirectly from Aabar BVI.

1MDB  had  issued  an immediate  response  to  IPIC’s  announcement claiming that it “finds it curious  that  IPIC  and  Aabar have waited until April 2016 to issue such a statement”. However, the timing of IPIC’s announcement isn’t surprising because Reuters have recently reported  that 2 key former  IPIC  and  Aabar  officials,  Khadem  Al  Qubaisi  and  Mohamed Badawy Al Husseiny have been arrested by the Abu Dhabi authorities.

Malaysians  are  actually  more “curious”  why  1MDB  paying  billions  of  dollars  to  the  fake Aabar. We  are  also  curious  why  it  has  taken  so  long  for  1MDB  to  finally  admit  to  the
misappropriation since the matter was exposed by the Wall Street Journal in November last year.

Despite  repeated  questions  by  the  global  media  and  critics  like  myself,  the  President  of 1MDB, Arul Kanda had stubbornly refused to address the question of who really owns Aabar BVI. Instead, he chose  to  repeatedly recycle the allegations that we are part of a global malicious conspiracy aiming to discredit 1MDB and the Malaysian Government.

Arul Kanda’s refusal to provide a straight answer to earlier questions only goes to prove that he was fully aware that 1MDB had signed agreements and paid billions of dollars to a fake Aabar BVI which was  completely  unrelated  to  IPIC. It  also  means  that  Arul  Kanda  and 1MDB have deceived the Auditor-General and the PAC by their failure to disclose and explain the truth during the investigations.

Hence it is crystal clear that there are parties in 1MDB who have acted in cahoots with IPIC’s former top officials to scam Malaysians of billions of dollar. 1MDB had borrowed US$3.5 billion with the guarantee provided by IPIC for the purpose of acquiring power companies in Malaysia. However, the entire sum and more have been clearly embezzled to an entity, Aabar Investment PJS Ltd, whose real beneficial ownership remains a mystery till today.

Malaysians have had enough of lies from Arul Kanda and 1MDB. We demand that the Royal Malaysian Police act immediately to investigate and arrest all parties involved in this massive scam, aptly termed “the Heist of the Century” by the Sarawak Report.