MEDIA STATEMENT: BRING BACK CAYMAN MONEY AS PROMISED TO PARLIAMENT
PKR does not share the views of 1MDB that it cannot repatriate an estimated total of RM18 billion worth of funds parked in Cayman Islands due to fears of exposure to currency fluctuations.
PKR is of the view that the estimated RM18 billion parked in the Cayman Islands must be in the form of US Dollars. According to reports, the funds were migrated to the Cayman Islands in or around September 2012 via the Segregated Portfolio Company structure. In September 2012, the then average exchange rate was USD1 to RM3.07.
Since then the Ringgit has weakened sharply and the current exchange rate is now USD1 to RM3.48.
In other words, the Cayman Islands money has in fact made substantial exchange rate gains since September 2012 equivalent to RM0.41 sen or 13%. Having made substantial foreign exchange gains, why can’t 1MDB repatriate all its money back to Malaysia? Therefore the statement by 1MDB Chairman Tan Sri Lodin Wok Kamaruddin that the Cayman Islands money should remain there is therefore financially illogical.
More importantly, his statement is also against the very promise made by Deputy Finance Minister Ahmad Maslan in Parliament on 6th November 2014 to return all the Cayman Islands money to Malaysia by year-end.
This illogical stand that is contrary to the Minister’s promise to Parliament, raises a serious question; does the so-called money in the Cayman Islands still exist or has it completely disappeared in the nearby Bermuda Triangle?
PKR therefore demands 1MDB immediately discloses and publishes a full account of all its money in the Cayman Islands and we also demand the Finance Minister Najib Razak to direct 1MDB to return the money to Malaysia before year-end.
YB Wong Chen Member of Parliament for Kelana Jaya 23 December 2014