Friday 29 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR (May 21): Second Finance Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Husni Mohamad says 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) has made a mistake and misinterpreted the nature of its assets kept in BSI Bank in Singapore.

"I feel it was a mistake, a mistake in the nature that it was interpreted when 1MDB said that it had redeemed (US$1.1 billion from Cayman Islands) and kept it in a bank in Singapore," he told reporters at Parliament lobby today.

Ahmad Husni explained that it was "assets" and not cash that was redeemed from Cayman Islands as reported before.

"It is actually savings (in the form of unit)... that is unit, that it is, unit that is being backed by the sovereign wealth fund," he said.

But when asked by reporters if the "units" were in the form of debt papers or "sukuk", Ahmad Husni could not explain further except for repeating that it was in the form of a "unit".

But he assured that the government was in the process to repatriate all the assets left in the BSI Bank, to Malaysia as soon as possible.

Ahmad Husni was referring to a confusion following Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak's written reply to Parliament yesterday stating that the US$1.103 billion in BSI Bank was in the form of assets and not in cash as reported earlier.

Najib's reply to Parliament was in contrast to a written reply at the last Parliamentary sitting on March 10, which stated that the amount was in cash instead. The amount was the redemption of Cayman Islands investment by debt-ridden 1MDB, which has borrowed RM42 billion in the short of five years.

Prior to this, 1MDB's president and group executive director Arul Kanda disclosed to Singapore Business Times that the US$1.103 billion was kept in cash.

Prime Minster Najib is the chairman of 1MDB’s board of advisors.

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