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YOURSAY | ‘1MDB’s problems are coming home to roost. But the fox is in the hen house.’

Where's that RM14 billion, 1MDB?

Prudent: This is an incisive dissection by P Gunasegaram of the 1MDB scandal. The facts are clear: US$3.51 billion was paid to British Virgin Island-incorporated Aabar Investment Ltd (BVI), supposedly a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi-owned and London Stock Exchange-listed IPIC.

This is now denied in black-and-white via a statement to the London Stock Exchange by IPIC. Aabar Investment PJS Ltd BVI has since been wound up.

This is fraud, whichever way one looks at it. Therefore, the representatives of the people - MPs, state assemblypersons - should now make police reports since the fraud ultimately involves taxpayers' money through the guarantees given by the government.

Amateur: Yes, Guna, the Chinese adage is "paper cannot cover a fire".

Even if the managing director of IPIC and the CEO of Aabar Investment PJS (both registered in Abu Dhabi) are directors of the Aabar Investment PJS Ltd (registered in the British Virgin Island), there is no reason for 1MDB to remit any money to the BVI-based company as they are separate legal entities.

Why the big guns from 1MDB failed to understand this remains a mystery.

Cogito Ergo Sum: A '1MDB for Dummies' lesson by Guna. Unthreading the convoluted deals and misdeeds, one can't help feeling that our nation has fallen into a downward spiral, from which it seems almost impossible to extricate itself.

One of the best lines to come out from 1MDB is “We seem to have been defrauded ourselves!' Well, contrary to popular belief, there is honour among thieves.

The end of this saga is unimaginable and scary. The voters who are ignorant will be led down a path of no financial return and a bright future stolen from them by a group of fast-talking, underhanded wheeler-dealers.

Thanks, Guna, for this. I think you have only touched the tip of the iceberg of the mother of all frauds that spans the globe.

Ayfy19: The problems that most people have expected would blow up and what you have predicted in your writings if 1MDB management did not take action to clear up the mess instead of focusing on cover-ups are coming home to roost.

But how now? The fox is in the hen house.

Falcon: Well-written and well said! After all these, we still have politicians in silk suits walking around giving speeches like saints, as if nothing has gone wrong, and that there has been no blatant calculated betrayal of the people's trust.

History will record all these and the names of the shenanigans linked to it directly and indirectly, no matter how some attempt to rewrite the nation’s history as they have done to date.

Shame on you, and that includes that fat boy, who is allegedly hiding in Taiwan and enjoying the fruits of his ill-gotten gains.

Baiyuensheng: The whole charade by Najib Abdul Razak, Umno and 1MDB have made Malaysia and its citizens appear undignified on the world stage. They have treated government bodies like their little projects in their own garages - doing as they pleased.

They allegedly stole from the rakyat with impunity. They don’t respect the sanctity of the government and the regulatory bodies, like the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), police force, judiciary, the Parliament and the Attorney-General’s Office.

These entities are trampled on by their dirty and filthy feet, without regard to the dignity of a country with 28 million proud people.

Those put in charge of these entities allegedly abetted to these abuses and participated actively to stain the very institutions that provide checks-and-balances. They are a disgrace to the Malay community and all Malaysians.

Swipenter: It is as clear as daylight that US$3.51 billion should never have gone to Aabar BVI but it did. Aabar BVI had been wound up presumably after siphoning out all the US$3.51 billion.

Yet those men at 1MDB have done nothing on what seems to be an obvious scheme to defraud us of US$3.51 billion. All they can come up with are denials of what seems so obvious now.

The obvious place to start is to trace the money trail from Aabar BVI through the international banking system. But no, our authorities and government are still sitting in their chairs issuing denials and clearing those involved of any wrongdoing and telling us to "let's move on".

We will not "move on" until and unless we get to the bottom of this 1MBD saga and throw those responsible into jail.

Onyourtoes: Please keep saying 1MDB was built entirely on debt. 1MDB has government jewels injected into it. It then borrowed recklessly like there was no tomorrow (based on the assets and government guarantees) to squander away the wealth of the nation.

Read my lips, by the time 1MDB clears off all the debts, the sovereign fund will be left with nothing. So my question now is, what has happened to all the government assets given to 1MDB for a song?

Justine Gow: Given the amount of ‘untruths’ or ‘half-truths’ that he has been spewing out on behalf of someone, 1MDB chief Arul Kanda Kandasamy will be the next convenient scapegoat for this 1MDB scandal, if he is not careful.

Hplooi: Thank you for the explanation, Guna. But beyond the hijacked billions is the bond deal itself. In exchange for guaranteeing the bond and cancelling of a buy option, 1MDB paid them US$3.5 billion?

What kind of deal is this? Did IPIC/Aabar pump in any cash capital ('units' not acceptable) for the build-it-yourself (BIY) option? Even if goodwill is involved, why were billions paid?

1MDB came out with zero (we haven't talked about interest on the bond coupon yet) on this deal. Why/what were 1MDB board members thinking when approving the bond deal? Is Goldman Sachs complicit?

If I were a criminal lawyer, I would pursue this to the ends of the earth. In simple terms, why would you even borrow when the money you obtained from the loan is used to pay the guy guaranteeing the loan?


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