Najib: 1MDB doesn’t owe IPIC, it’s the reverse
(MMO) – Malaysia does not owe any money to the International Petroleum Investment Company PJSC (IPIC), according to Datuk Seri Najib Razak, who today claimed it is the Abu Dhabi fund which must repay 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).
To back his claim, Najib cited a confidential 2017 settlement deal between the two companies, which he alleged would show that the former ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition he had led had managed to secure the return of money that was “lost” from 1MDB.
The former prime minister who had also previously chaired the Finance Ministry also claimed the federal government now under Pakatan Harapan did not want to disclose the IPIC-1MDB settlement agreement as it “could prove that the BN government had made efforts and succeeded in ensuring that all funds that allegedly went missing from 1MDB will be returned”.
“If you look at the flow of money related to 1MDB, every sen of 1MDB funds that were said to have gone missing were after it were paid to or after they were guaranteed by companies owned by IPIC’s top management,” he posted on his Facebook page this afternoon.
“The settlement agreement that I want the government to reveal will show that we gave time until December 30, 2020 for IPIC to repay to 1MDB all the funds that were said to have gone missing,” he added.
Najib cited IPIC’s announcement on the London Stock Exchange on April 24, 2017 to back his assertion.
The Pekan MP, who has collected multiple criminal, corruption and money laundering charges related to 1MDB and its former subsidiary SRC International Sdn Bhd, further claimed the documents of the deal would prove that he is not a thief but had instead worked to improve protection of Malaysians’ property and rights.
While Najib has pressed for the documents to be released, Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng reportedly said this could not be done as the matter was now before the courts.
The Malaysian government had on October 30 said that it will ask the UK courts to set aside a May 9, 2017 consent award by an arbitration tribunal in London for 1MDB to pay US$5.78 billion (RM24.1 billion) to IPIC and the bond trustee over a five-year period.
In a statement last month, Attorney-General Tommy Thomas said Malaysia had already paid US$1.46 billion of the sum.
The Malaysian government also said it would ask the UK courts to affirm that it has a right to recover the US$1.46 billion already paid, and that the country was relieved from paying the remaining sum to either IPIC or Aabar as 1MDB was allegedly defrauded by Najib.
Najib today cited an October 30 news report by news wire Reuters, which he said would back his claim that IPIC owes Malaysia.
The news report cited Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund Mubadala as saying that 1MDB does not owe any debt at the moment to IPIC or Mubadala, with Mubadala also saying that the settlement agreement remains binding.
Mubadala had also said that 1MDB has the primary liability to pay regular interest coupons to the noteholders of US$3.5 billion worth of IPIC-guaranteed notes as 1MDB was the note issuer, also saying that 1MDB has the primary liability to repay the principal amount when the notes mature.
