Thursday 28 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR: Finance Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak has clarified that the start-up capital granted to Terengganu Investment Authority (TIA), now known as 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB), back in 2009 was RM1 million and not RM500 million.

“Based on the information provided by 1MDB’s management to the Ministry of Finance, the statement made by Sepang Member of Parliament (MP) that TIA was given a start up capital of a total of RM500 million is untrue,” Najib, who is the Prime Minister, told Parliament in his written reply to MP for Sepang Mohamed Hanipa Maiden yesterday.

“The federal government took over TIA from the Terengganu state government on Sept 25, 2009, with RM1,000,002.00.

“And TIA’s name was than subsequently changed to 1MDB,” he added.

Mohamed Hanipa had asked Najib to state whether TIA which was set up before 1MDB in 2008 was given initiation funds (capital) of RM500 million.

To recap, it was reported that veteran journalist Datuk A Kadir Jasin had written on his blog claiming that according to sources familiar and close to the pioneers of TIA/1MDB, the company's RM5 billion start-up loan had depleted “mysteriously” to RM500 million in less than one year.

These sources, he said also believed that the “mystery man” businesman Low Taek Jho was involved in the TIA/1MDB transaction early on and was the “mediator” between the company and their investors, especially those from the Middle East.

The former New Straits Times group editor-in-chief also said that sources suggested that, while scrutinising the company’s money trail, Low should be made as the prime witness if he is not the prime suspect in the matter.

Kadir then asked that the Auditor-General should also start investigations immediately before the information or evidence needed was tampered with.

TIA which was established in 2008 as a sovereign wealth fund was aimed at ensuring economic development in the state of Terengganu. It was renamed 1MDB in 2009 and became a federal entity.

 

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on May 29, 2015.

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