COMMENT Granted, the 'winding up' or 'liquidation' of the scandal-ridden 1MDB is finally on the way, as reported by Straits Times, Jan 7.

Under the unit Budiman committee led by the Second Finance Minister Johari Abdul Ghani, the remaining trophy assets of 1MDB, viz the 197ha Bandar Malaysia, 28ha Tun Razak Exchange (TRX) and the 94.7ha parcel of land in Penang's Air Itam district will be transferred to Piramid Pertama and Aroma Teraju, both 100 percent Finance Ministry-owned companies.

That done, resolution of 1MDB's debt obligation, according to a senior government official familiar with liquidation exercises, will be separately carried out by the government.

Very specifically, in Malaysia, our winding up laws are contained in our Companies Act 1965 (Section 254 -voluntary liquidation). Companies may be wound up or liquidated by a number of ways or forms. A creditor voluntary liquidation is usually initiated when a company is already insolvent, that is, unable to pay off all of its debt.

The 1MDB case is clearly a voluntary winding up by directors and shareholders or a shareholder-initiated liquidation. Not as yet insolvent though, but that 1MDB is debt-ridden, is a gross understatement.