Yesterday (May 23), finance minister Lim Guan Eng held a briefing with 1MDB president and CEO Arul Kanda Kandasamy, its former CFO Azmi Tahir and former general counsel Ivan Chen.
Shortly after, he told reporters that the time has come for the Ministry of Finance to take over the offices of 1MDB. He said that they will be taking over the building as shareholders, according to Malaysia Kini.
“We have instructed the ministry of finance officials to take possession of the building as shareholders,” he said.
“The general council has agreed and is handing over the keys to our possession.”
He then went on to say that he hopes all the relevant documents are still in place when they take possession of the 1MDB building.
Guan Eng then mentioned that the board of directors of 1MDB will be providing all documents to the ministry, including letters issued by the minister of finance.
Earlier, Guan Eng had met with 1MDB chief executive officer (CEO) Arul Kanda and its two directors, Datuk Norazman Ayob and Datuk Kamal Mohd Ali to discuss the company’s finances.
He interrogated them on the RM3.75 billion and RM6.22 billion investment funds with Singapore’s BSI Bank and 1MDB’ Global Investments Ltd respectively. He said to the press that this money can be redeemed and that it is more than enough to settle 1MDB’s financial obligations for the next few years.
During the meeting, Arul Kanda said that he was unaware about these investments and added that all their financial matters were handled by 1MDB’s chief financial officer.
Not buying into Kanda’s statement, Guan Eng said,
“It is completely unbelievable that a highly paid and ‘experienced’ investment banker can be so irresponsibly clueless as to not know whether RM9.8 billion worth of investments are even real.”
What do you think of Arul Kanda being unaware of these investments and our finance ministry finally taking over 1MDB?
Also read: BN Govt Allegedly Turned to Bank Negara to Pay Off 1MDB’s RM2 Billion Debt