1MDB scandal: Arul Kanda Kandasamy publicly defended Malaysian state fund but now faces 20 years in jail for tampering with government audit
- The US Department of Justice has said about US$4.5 billion was misappropriated from 1MDB between 2009 and 2014
- The tampering of the report was exposed when the new auditor general showed amendments had been made after its submission
Arul Kanda Kandasamy, the public face of Malaysia’s long-running 1MDB scandal, was on Wednesday charged with tampering with a government audit report into the state fund. The former 1MDB president and CEO entered a plea of not guilty. Later, at the same court complex, former prime minister Najib Razak was charged with the same offence.
Before this year’s elections that led to Najib being replaced as premier by Mahathir Mohamad, Arul appeared on the campaign trail to assure voters no wrongdoing had occurred at 1MDB – the abbreviation for 1Malaysia Development Berhad. Arul now faces a prison sentence of 20 years and a fine if found guilty. This was the first charge against Arul but Najib and many other officials face various charges involving money-laundering and corruption.
The US Department of Justice has said about US$4.5 billion was misappropriated from 1MDB between 2009 and 2014. Mahathir’s new government has vowed aggressive measures to recoup these funds.
Arul was appointed at 1MDB in 2015 to deliver a rationalisation plan to monetise its assets, having spent several years in the Middle East.
However, when 1MDB became mired in scandal, with the opposition accusing the government of corruption, Arul became the most prominent public defender of the state fund’s operations. This included addressing the seizure of assets allegedly bought with misappropriated funds, such as the super yacht Equanimity and paintings by Monet and Picasso.