{"id":12183,"date":"2015-02-24T12:14:21","date_gmt":"2015-02-24T04:14:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/?p=12183"},"modified":"2015-02-24T12:14:21","modified_gmt":"2015-02-24T04:14:21","slug":"1mdb-whats-going-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/1mdb-whats-going-on\/","title":{"rendered":"1MDB: What&#8217;s Going On?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>1MDB: What\u2019s going on?<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/1mdb-feat-650x400.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright  wp-image-12189\" src=\"http:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/1mdb-feat-650x400.jpg\" alt=\"1mdb-feat-650x400\" width=\"530\" height=\"326\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The scandal involving billions of ringgit in debt of the fully-government owned 1Malaysia Development Berhad has received a lot of attention both locally and internationally, but the growing controversy surrounding this mysterious sovereign wealth fund cum investment arm of the Finance Ministry, is not so easily digestible. Here is what has transpired in this controversy so far:<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>One: Who is 1MDB and what does it do? <\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">On its website, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.1mdb.com.my\"><span class=\"s2\">www.1mdb.com.my<\/span><\/a>, it says that it is a strategic development company, wholly-owned by the Government. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">In this <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thestar.com.my\/Business\/Business-News\/2015\/01\/14\/Arul-1MDB-fully-redeemed-investment-in-Cayman-Islands-registered-fund\/?style=biz%20\">report<\/a>\u00a0by The Star, 1MDB\u2019s portfolio include \u201c15 power and desalination plants in five countries that comprise its energy business, property that includes 70 acres of prime real estate currently being developed as the Tun Razak Exchange, 495 acres of land on the site of the old airport in Sungai Besi earmarked for the Bandar Malaysia development, and 234 acres of land in Air Itam, Penang.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Two: There have been many doubts cast on its dealings<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Among others, 1MDB has been linked to the controversial and flamboyant tycoon Jho Low, most famously seen in the company of celebrities like Paris Hilton. An extremely detailed <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2015\/02\/09\/nyregion\/jho-low-young-malaysian-has-an-appetite-for-new-york.html\">report<\/a> on his links with 1MDB was reported\u00a0by the reknowned New York Times, and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sarawakreport.org\/2014\/05\/how-1mdb-backed-jho-lows-private-equity-splash-further-exclusive\/\">another<\/a> by Sarawak Report.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Allegations against the company include funds parked at the Cayman Islands, delays on repaying its loans, unclear deals with shell joint-venture companies, which the company has consistently denied and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.themalaysianinsider.com\/malaysia\/article\/1mdb-will-inform-public-of-business-arrangement-says-arul-kanda\">promises<\/a> to keep the public updated on its progress.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Three: It has, apparently, a lot of debt. A lot.<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Various reports such as the one on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.themalaysianinsider.com\/malaysia\/article\/bank-negara-grills-top-executives-as-1mdb-fails-to-settle-rm2-billion-debt%20\">The Malaysian Insider<\/a>\u00a0and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.freemalaysiatoday.com\/category\/nation\/2014\/12\/13\/1mdb-scandal-coming-to-the-surface\/\">Free Malaysia Today<\/a> \u00a0show that the company is heavily in debt.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">However, 1MDB has <a href=\"http:\/\/www.1mdb.com.my\/news-coverage\/lodin-clears-the-air-on-1mdb\">clarified<\/a> that it remains in healthy financial status.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Four: Despite public pressure, the Auditor General won\u2019t touch it. Nor any accounting firm for that matter.<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">When asked to look through the books of this multi-billion dollar company, the Auditor General himself said he <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rakyattimes.com\/index.php\/news\/1606-auditing-is-laborious-so-1mdb-off-the-hook\">wouldn\u2019t go through it<\/a>\u00a0and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thestar.com.my\/Business\/Business-News\/2014\/04\/22\/Auditors-highlight-several-critical-areas-in-its-books-and-reveal-more-funds\/?style=biz\">accounting firms<\/a> have declined to comment on it, giving up halfway on their audits.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The story is still developing as it was recently reported that 1MDB would need another <a href=\"http:\/\/www.themalaysianinsider.com\/malaysia\/article\/after-ananda-krishnan-loan-1mdb-now-needs-government-cash\">RM3 billion<\/a> on top of the RM2billion allegedly <a href=\"http:\/\/www.themalaysianinsider.com\/malaysia\/article\/ananda-krishnan-to-lend-1mdb-up-to-rm2-billion-to-settle-debts\">injected<\/a> in by tycoon Tan Sri Ananda Krishnan.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">-The Rocket<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>1MDB: What\u2019s going on? The scandal involving billions of ringgit in debt of the fully-government owned 1Malaysia Development Berhad has received a lot of attention both locally and internationally, but the growing controversy surrounding this mysterious sovereign wealth fund cum investment arm of the Finance Ministry, is not so easily digestible. Here is what has [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12189,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[260],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12183"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12183\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12196,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12183\/revisions\/12196"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}