1MDB may have denied presenting fake documents to Bank Negara but the company was conspicuously silent on the same allegation involving two other banks, said Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua.

Pua ( photo ) accused 1MDB president and group executive director Arul Kanda of attempting to mislead the public by denying giving fake documents to Bank Negara but ignoring the other two banks.

Furthermore, Pua said in the allegation as reported by whistleblower site Sarawak Report , the fake documents were never delivered to Bank Negara but merely addressed to it, and passed to two other banks.

“Hence what was alleged was a fake letter, purportedly addressed to Bank Negara but never delivered, which was used to deceive two different banks, including Deutsche Bank.

“Arul, in his protestations of innocence, never referred to the above letter ‘addressed’ to Bank Negara.  

“Instead he conflated the ‘false bank statement’ and the ‘fake letter addressed to Bank Negara’ to deny that he ever submitted a false bank statement to the central bank to obfuscate the reading public,” said Pua.

“Pua said Arul should stop attempting to ‘twist and turn with seemingly clever evasive manoeuvres’, pointing out that he had done the same with 1MDB’s Cayman Islands funds, the actual status of which has now been revealed to be questionable.

'This is a lie'

“It is no different when he attempted to silence the critics of 1MDB’s investments in Cayman Islands when he announced on Jan 13 that the balance of the fund had been ‘redeemed’ in its entirety.

“We now know, of course, that the entire redemption was questionable as there was no cash involved and whatever paper assets there were, were merely shifted from Cayman to the BSI Bank account in Singapore,” said Pua.

Yesterday, Arul said Sarawak Report 'continues to carry false information and direct unfounded allegations about 1MDB' with an allegation that he provided a false bank statement to Bank Negara to imply that 1MDB had cash in a BSI account in Singapore.

“This is a lie. I have never provided any such statement to Bank Negara. To state otherwise is blatantly false and incorrect, as are allegations that are based on this premise,” said Arul.

In response, Sarawak Report criticised Arul for addressing the ‘peripheral details’ of its report, adding that it is in possession of evidence that Arul had faxed a false bank statement to BSI Singapore.