1MDB sovereign wealth fund debts have yet to be settled because Malaysia is still servicing the interests on those debts, Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz said today.

According to Tengku Zafrul, former prime minister Najib Razak’s claims that not a single sen of public funds had been used by the government to repay the principal debt was baseless.

“The accusation that we have not repaid the principal amount is baseless since the principal amount is not yet mature.

“As of the end of this month, the remaining commitment stands between RM38.5 billion and RM38.8 billion, with RM32.3 billion principal and RM6.5 billion interest,” he told the Dewan Rakyat today, following a question from Lim Guan Eng (Bagan-PH) about Najib’s claim.

Yesterday, Najib said the opposition could not make the excuse that 1MDB had destroyed the country’s finances.

“It is not right to suggest that the rakyat will have to pay for 1MDB debts.

“The rakyat don’t have to pay, we can use the RM16.4 billion from Goldman Sachs to pay the debts.

“Other funds were also received and all this accumulates to RM23 billion. This is not the rakyat’s money that can be used to pay the debts,” he had said.

Najib said public funds were not required because various sums of money had been recovered from Goldman Sachs, audit firms KPMG and Deloitte, Ambank and the US Department of Justice (DOJ).

All told, he said Malaysia had received RM23 billion of missing 1MDB funds through fines and forfeitures.

Najib has been sentenced to 12 years in prison and fined RM210 million on seven charges related to the misappropriation of RM42 million from SRC International, a subsidiary of 1MDB. His appeal is pending at Federal Court.

The former prime minister also faces several other criminal cases over the scandal, plus civil suits as the companies look to recover looted funds from him. – March 3, 2022.