KUALA LUMPUR, May 26 — Good Star Ltd, the company that received US$1.03 billion (RM 4.2 billion) from 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), was owned by Saudi oil firm Petrosaudi International, Putrajaya insisted today.
Despite Bank Negara Malaysia and Public Accounts Committee (PAC) both stating the Seychelles-based firm was unrelated to Petrosaudi, the Finance Ministry said 1MDB's records show it belonged to the Middle Eastern firm when payments were made in 2009.
"The payments were made so that 1MDB can obtain a 40 per cent stake in a joint venture," the ministry said.
"Petrosaudi also acknowledged receiving the payments, according to agreements that were made when the payments were transferred," it added.
The Petrosaudi-1MDB joint venture was later terminated in 2012, and 1MDB stressed that they did not lose any money over the deal.
It also claimed to have made a US$488 (RM 1.98 billion) profit from the deal.
The ownership of Good Star became controversial after PAC members accused chairman Datuk Hasan Ariffin of deleting two paragraphs from the committee’s report on 1MDB relating to the ownership of the firm.
Hasan responded by saying “the deletion of two sentences in no way affects the final report by the Public Account Committee (PAC) on 1MDB”, and the sentences were deleted because of their unclear status, or because the matter was under investigation and not for public consumption.
