Pua joins Dr M, calls Arul 'liar extraordinaire'

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Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad may have called 1MDB president Arul Kanda a liar but DAP's Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua upped the ante today, calling the company's public face "liar extraordinaire".

This came is after 1MDB, in a lengthy explanation yesterday, tried to deflect Mahathir's accusation that Arul had lied about 1MDB's funds.

Mahathir had painted Arul as a liar who does not have the integrity to explain 1MDB issues.

He said this is after Arul claimed he saw 1MDB's cash of US$1.103 billion being redeemed from the Cayman Islands and parked in Singapore, which turned out to be "units" instead of cash.

However, 1MDB said yesterday that Arul had never said he saw the cash.

"Despite Mahathir’s vigorous claims, it is a fact that Arul never said he 'saw the cash'.

"He is on the record as saying he had 'seen the statements', referring to the fund unit ownership and redemptions," 1MDB added in a statement.

However, Pua said the explanation was yet another attempt by the company to lie.

"The 1MDB president specifically said: 'the cash is in our accounts and in US dollars. I can assure you (about that)... I have seen the statements'.

"It is therefore disingenuous for 1MDB to just quote Arul Kanda as having 'seen the statements' without also quoting the sentence, 'the cash is in our accounts and in US dollars'," Pua ( photo ) said.

Pua said this proved that Arul was a "liar extraordinaire".

He added that even though 1MDB had admitted it made a mistake by claiming "units" to be cash, it took almost two months to clarify the matter.

The Finance Ministry was forced to correct its answer to Parliament about the status of the funds and blamed 1MDB for the erroneous explanation.

Massive delay in clarifying mistake

"if there was indeed misunderstanding in the response provided to the Finance Ministry, why did Arul not immediately correct the massive mistake on March 10, when the ‘cash’ answer was provided and widely published?

"Instead, Arul waited until more than two months later, on May 19, after I had posted the question again in Parliament, before issuing the correction. 

"If I did not ask the question, the truth would never have surfaced. 

"Such a massive delay in clarifying the mistake is the height of irresponsibility by the 1MDB president," Pua said.

He added that while 1MDB was right about Mahathir getting some of his figures wrong, the company ultimately still avoided answering the gist of the issues raised.

"I agree that, strictly speaking, some of the figures which were cited in the former prime minister’s critique were inaccurate. 

"However, the gist of the arguments was definitely sound.

"Arul Kanda’s many responses within the statement, therefore, did not address the key questions that key critics like myself have raised many times previously," Pua said.



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