Beberapa dokumen baru yang diperolehi oleh
Sarawak Report
menunjukkan pada tahun 2011, syarikat Good Star Limited, dimiliki Taek
Jho Low telah menerima wang berjumlah USD$330 juta yang merupakan
pinjaman yang diluluskan 1MDB untuk membiayai projek usahasama dengan
syarikat PetroSaudi International.
Wang ini merupakan pinjaman dalam Ringgit daripada dua bank luar pesisir dan juga baki dari hasil Sukuk Murabaha.
Wang tersebut dipindahkan di dalam bentuk empat “tranches” berasingan
dalam bentuk USD terus ke dalam akaun syarikat Good Star Limited di
dalam bank RBS Coutts di Zurich, Switzerland.
Namun kelulusan yang diperolehi hanya untuk meminjam duit kepada
syarikat usahasama 1MDB-PetroSaudi atas dasar pembiayaan untuk pelaburan
sektor Oil & Gas di luar negara.
Rasionalisasi kelulusan tersebut
adalah “Untuk meneruskan perkongsian strategik dan global dalam sektor
tenaga dan menggalakkan pelaburan langsung asing ke Malaysia”.
Permohonan dari 1MDB langsung tidak menyebut apa-apa mengenai
syarikat Good Star dan tiada kelulusan diterima untuk menghantar duit
tersebut kepada syarikat Good Star.
Walau bagaimanapun kesemua empat bayaran berjumlah USD$330,000,000
daripada dua bank berasingan di Malaysia telah dihantar terus ke
Good Star Limited, menurut dokumen-dokumen tersebut.
Further USD$330 million Went Straight To Jho Low’s Good Star Limited From 1MDB! NEW EXCLUSIVE
Investing in growth or siphoning out Malaysia’s borrowed money?
New documents obtained by Sarawak Report show that in 2011 the
company Good Star Limited, which is controlled by the businessman friend
of the Finance Minister, Jho Low, received the entirety of a further
USD$330 million ‘loan’ that had been authorised by the development fund
1MDB, supposedly in favour of its former joint venture partner
PetroSaudi International.
Good Star Limited is based in the Seychelles, but incorporated in the
Cayman Islands and it has a bank account in Zurich. A signatory is Seet
Li Lin, who is Jho Low’s deputy.
Jho Low has repeatedly maintained that he has held no role in 1MDB and made no profit from its investment dealings.
Good Star – recipient of USD$330 million from 1MDB
Yet, Sarawak Report has already revealed that PetroSaudi Directors had agreed to
“act as front”
for Jho Low and that out of a total of USD1.5 billion already invested
in PetroSaudi between Sept 2009 and Sept 2010, $860 million had been
secretly siphoned into Good Star’s RBS Coutts account in Zurich.
Good Star’s Zurich account
Now, official investigators have ascertained that a further USD$330
million, which 1MDB had sought approval to lend to PetroSaudi in May
2011, also all went straight to Good Star Limited instead.
This money had been funded by “ringgit borrowing from offshore banks
and the balance of the Sukuk Murabaha proceeds” said official
investigators, reporting earlier this month to Malaysia’s regulatory
authorities.
How the transfer was declared in 1MDB’s official accounts – it was alleged the money went to PetroSaudi International in 2012
The money was transferred in four separate tranches in the form of
USD currency ($30 million + $65 million + $110 million + $125 million)
straight into Good Star Limited’s RBS Coutts, Zurich account.
Yet approval had only been granted by the regulators for 1MDB to lend
the money to 1MDB PetroSaudi Limited (BVI) on the basis that it was to
“finance on-going overseas investment in the oil and gas sector”.
The rational for the approval was:
“To pursue a strategic and global partnership in the energy sector and promoting foreign direct investment into Malaysia”
There was no mention made of the company Good Star in the 1MDB
application and neither was approval granted for the money to be sent to
Good Star.
Nevertheless all four of the payments totalling $330 million from two
separate banks in Malaysia went straight to Good Star Limited,
according to the documents we hold.
All the money went to Good Star’s account at Coutts according to the official papers (code names redacted)
‘Inter-governmental agreement’ approved by Ministry of Finance
The application presented by 1MDB for this alleged loan had claimed that it was “
part
of the government to government initiative between Malaysia and Saudi
Arabia specifically to explore investment opportunities in the energy
sector“, say the investigators.
Yet there is scant evidence of any such formal inter-governmental agreement between the two countries.
Neither has there been any evidence whatsoever of any investment by
the PetroSaudi International in Malaysia, apart from the buy out of the
Taib family’s UBG bank, which Sarawak Report has now
demonstrated was also
financed by 1MDB.
Even so, 1MDB had stated in its application to the financial
controllers that its lending to 1MDB PetroSaudi (BVI) had been approved
by the Minister of Finance and the Board of Directors of 1MDB, say the
official investigators.
The money did not go to 1MDB PetroSaudi (BVI), however. It went to Good Star Limited, controlled by Jho Low.
Misleading information to the financial authorities
Most shockingly, the investigation has further established that the
USD$330 million, which was sent to Good Star was officially reported to
Malaysia’s Bank Negara as having been paid to the PetroSaudi company
1MDB PetroSaudi.
All such large foreign payment transactions need under Malaysian regulations to be the subject of a so-called
ITIS Report [International Transactions Information System].
Under this report it was stated that the money had gone to PetroSaudi’s parent company’s account.
The
foreign exchange reports informed the Bank Negara that the money had
been sent to the parent company of PetroSaudi International (code names
redacted)
The question now is who was responsible for providing this misleading
information that Good Star Limited was a subsidiary company of
PetroSaudi International?
Also, why did none of the banks involved in any of these transactions ever see fit to file a suspicious transaction report?
There is also a growing incredulity as to how USD$1.103 billion can
still be remaining from this ill fated PetroSaudi investment and sitting
in a BSI bank account in Singapore as the Finance Ministry is currently
claiming?
Sitting
pretty – PetroSaudi bought a drill ship with the money from 1MDB and is
now licensed to a profitable oil concession off Venezuela. But, what
really came back to 1MDB and who was the buyer who allegedly bought up
the fund’s loan investment in the company?
Out of a total of at least USD$1.93 billion that Sarawak Report
calculates was lent to PetroSaudi we now see that USD$1.19 billion went
to Good Star Limited.
Earlier this week we revealed that the Singapore authorities have
identified that over USD$500 million then passed through Jho Low’s own
BSI accounts from Good Star during the period 2011 – 2013.
Yet the Minister of Finance has claimed in a series of statements
that USD$2.3 billion was ‘redeemed’ from the PetroSaudi investment in
2012 and that USD$1.103 billion of that money is still sitting in cash
in 1MDB’s Brazen Sky account in Singapore.
He says the reason he does not want to repatriate the cash to
Malaysia to pay off some of 1MDB’s pressing debts is because it would
involve getting permissions from the Malaysian Central Bank Negara.
Is it time for the Auditor General to ring BSI bank and check the 1MDB account?