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PETALING JAYA: Former Prime Minister Najib Razak said he did not believe in the "evidence" presented by Tong Kooi Ong, owner of The Edge, on the issue of 1MDB, as it was based on e-mails stolen by an employee of PetroSaudi dissatisfied.
Tong claimed to have presented to Najib the evidence of the wrongdoing of the fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho in March 2015, after Najib had stated that he did not know that something was wrong. It was not because he had not been informed.
Najib stated that all the documents provided by Tong came from a former PetroSaudi employee who was not satisfied with his business and who had stolen the emails before using them to blackmail his employer and his friends during years.
"It was also stated that the documents had been changed. The employee was later sentenced in Thailand for blackmail, "he said in a message posted on Facebook without mentioning names.
In addition, Najib said that PetroSaudi belonged at the time to Tareq Obaid, and then to Prince Turki Abdullah, governor of Riyadh, King Abdullah's seventh favorite son.
"We asked PetroSaudi if there was a truth about the allegations that were prevalent at the time. They responded with an official letter stating that the allegations were false and that GoodStar had always been owned by PetroSaudi. "
Najib also included the documents in his Facebook message.
"Then, all payments to PetroSaudi were returned with profit in the form of units guaranteed by Aabar Corporation, which belonged to IPIC, which held assets twice as large as Khazanah Nasional," he added. .
Najib stated that the auditor of 1MDB, which was among the top four audit firms in the world, confirmed the value of the units and did not claim that the Aabar guarantee did not exist.
Similarly, he said, prominent lawyers hired by 1MDB, Wong and Partners, did not say everything was fine.
Najib said that after meeting with Mr. Tong, an agreement was reached with IPIC in June 2015, under which IPIC would take over the $ 3.5 billion US bond issued by 1MDB in exchange for the shares.
"I myself called the Crown Prince of the United Arab Emirates and he immediately paid $ 1 billion to 1MDB to start the process.
"At the time, there was no indication that the guarantee of units or the amount paid to Aabar BVI by 1MDB was a scam. It was not until late 2015 that IPIC questioned the guarantee or denied owning Aabar. "
This, he said, came after the dismissal of a "strong man" of the United Arab Emirates' Crown Prince, Khadem Al Qubaisi, as IPIC's chief executive officer.
Najib added that, aside from the settlement with IPIC, the government had also initiated the investigation and audit of the Public Accounts Committee regarding 1MDB.
"Yes, Tong may be right today, but in March 2015, his words were based on the statements of an employee displeased with the explanations of the governor of Riyadh and the Saudi prince, an international auditor and the highest direction of Aabar. "
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