KUALA LUMPUR (May 28): Finance Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak cited a parliamentary order as the reason for not revealing details pertaining to the controversial dealings involving 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) and PetroSaudi Limited in London.

Member of Parliament for Petaling Jaya Utara Tony Pua had asked Najib, who is also chairman of the board of advisers at 1MDB, to state whether the management of 1MDB had only met the PetroSaudi International Limited (PSI) for the first time on September 23, 2009, which was five days before the agreement was signed between 1MDB and PetroSaudi Limited in London.

"The matter raised by the Member of Parliament for Petaling Jaya Utara is based on news report by a portal which cannot be ascertain its authenticity of its sources.

"Therefore the matter is under 23(1)(i) standing order that states a question shall not be asked to whether statements in the press or of private individuals or financial bodies are accurate," Najib who is also the Prime Minister told Parliament in his written reply to Pua.

To a subsequent question by Pua whether this agreement was approved by 1MDB's board of directors at the time, Najib replied that "all decisions and dealings of 1MDB is decided by the management and board of directors of 1MDB".

To recap, documents on the whistleblower website Sarawak Report had showed that four days after 1MDB PetroSaudi was created, PSI signed an agreement saying the subsidiary owed it US$700 million.

Pua had previously said that instead of making money from the deal with PSI, 1MDB's president Arul Kanda Kandasamy had to explain a loss of US$1.1 billion.

"Arul Kanda was proud to announce that 1MDB made US$488 million of profit from the Petrosaudi transaction but what we have at hand is at least US$1.1 billion missing in unknown whereabouts.

"The next question to ask is hence, where exactly is this US$488 million of ‘paper’ profit Arul was talking about?" Pua then asked.

The cover up, Pua alleged, had its origins in the 1MDB joint venture with 1MDB PetroSaudi, which looked like a scam to give US$700 million to another company.

That company was 1MDB PetroSaudi’s parent, PSI, which received US$700 million from its subsidiary.

Pua said that PSI had created the shell company, 1MDB PetroSaudi, from scratch on September 18, 2009 just 10 days before its subsidiary received US$1 billion from 1MDB.

Four days later, on September 29, 1MDB bought 40% of new shares in 1MDB PetroSaudi and injected RM1 billion in cash.

The next day, US$700 million was taken out of 1MDB PetroSaudi and given to PSI.