1MALAYSIA Development Bhd should reveal how it raised the money to pay Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund “the equivalent of US$350 million” (RM1.5 billion) on Thursday, a DAP leader has said.

DAP national publicity secretary Tony Pua said the phrase “equivalent of US$350 million” in 1MDB’s announcement of the payment to Abu Dhabi’s International Petroleum Investment Co (IPIC) cast doubt that the payment was in US dollars.

“Why did 1MDB say ‘the equivalent of US$350 million’ as opposed to just a straightforward ‘US$350 million’, or whatever the amount is?

“Normally, one would perhaps phrase ‘the equivalent of US$350 million’ if the payment was not remitted in US Dollars but perhaps in this case in ringgit Malaysia?”

Pua said US dollar transactions would require re-routing via US banks, and if 1MDB’s Thursday remittance was in ringgit, then it lent credence to the allegation international banks avoided 1MDB transactions for fear of participating in money laundering.

He drew attention to a report by The Malaysian Insight that quoted a source as saying that the bank transfer was done by Maybank.

“Does this mean that 1MDB circumvented its US dollar remittance ‘technical problem’ with Bank Negara granting approval for the remittance to be issued from Malaysia in ringgit (or any other non-US dollar currency)? 

“This mystery further begs the question – how did 1MDB get its money in Malaysia?”

Pua said the 1MDB’s statement debt payment scheme it reached with IPIC in April stated that the Malaysian state investor would raise money “primarily via monetisation of 1MDB-owned investment fund units”.

“The last we know, these investment fund ‘units’ were held in the now-defunct BSI Bank, Singapore.  The last known value on the balance of these ‘units’ was US$940 million.

“Hence, one would certainly like to ask 1MDB, if the source of the ‘equivalent of US$350 million’ came of the sale of these ‘units’ overseas?  If that were so, wouldn’t the investment disposal proceeds not be in US dollars?”

He said the previous 1MDB statements on the its debt to IPIC referenced the monetisation of the fund units, but Thursday’s statement just mentioned an “ongoing rationalisation programme”, raising questions on the source of the US$350 million.

“If 1MDB’s ‘equivalent of US$350 million’ payment to IPIC was not the proceeds from the ‘units’ sale, then where did the money come from?  1MDB has after all, sold or transferred all of its assets – both energy and real estate, and have already used such proceeds to pare down their humongous debt and interest payments,” Pua said.

“1MDB and Prime Minister Najib Razak must come clean on the matter, especially since 1MDB has another US$300 million and US$603 million to pay by August 31 and  December 31 respectively.“ – August 12, 2017.