KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 10): 1Malaysia Development Bhd’s Assets Recovery Trust Account balance stood at RM1.927 billion at end-2022, down 87.4% from RM15.281 billion in 2021, according to the Auditor General's report on the federal government financial statement for the year 2022.
This followed the payments of RM13.9 billion in 1MDB borrowings that year, which left the amount guaranteed by the federal government at RM18.17 billion as at end-2022, down 43.3% from RM32.07 billion at end-2021.
The reduction followed the principal payment of two 1MDB bonds, totalling US$3.5 billion (RM15.52 billion).
“1MDB’s interest payment of RM1.541 billion in 2022 was paid using development expenditure of RM1.53 billion, and [the] 1MDB’s Assets Recovery Trust Account fund of RM11 billion,” it said.
1MDB also had another US$3 billion (RM13.17 billion) bond redeemed in March 2023, which was paid via the Budget 2023 allocation under its development expenditure. The troubled state-owned fund also has another RM5 billion due in 2039.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said in August that the Malaysian government seeks to recover more funds from Goldman Sachs, which arranged for two 1MDB bonds that raised US$6.5 billion and received US$600 million in fees in return.
Two former Goldman bankers have been accused of helping facilitate the theft of more than US$2.7 billion of the proceeds from those offerings, while the bank agreed to return US$3.9 billion in cash and assets recovery to Malaysia, as part of a global settlement inked in 2020.
Meanwhile, the government has also paid off RM985.01 million in SRC International Sdn Bhd borrowings in the year, the report said, marking the elimination of all government guarantees in SRC International.
SRC International, previously a unit of 1MDB, also took up huge borrowings in the past, including RM4 billion in loans from the Kumpulan Wang Persaraan (KWAP) in 2011 and 2022, which were siphoned and remain missing.
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