SHAH ALAM -- The Malaysian government announced that it has received a remittance of US$80 million (RM340.92 million) from the out-of-court settlement related to 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) from international audit firm KPMG.
In a statement today, Finance Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz said the funds were deposited into Malaysia’s Assets Recovery Trust Account.
To date, the Trust Account has received a total of RM19.138 billion in connection with the 1MDB financial scandal and these funds will be used to settle the firm's outstanding debts.
"The Government has repaid RM13.3 billion of 1MDB’s debt so far. As of 31 December 2021, 1MDB’s outstanding debt comprising principal and coupons/ profit for bonds and Sukuk, amounted to RM38.81 billion. However, the current balance of the Trust Account is sufficient to pay off only the principal amount of the bonds for 2022.
"Once all the Trust Account funds are utilised, the Government will continue to bear the obligation to pay the balance of 1MDB’s debts, whose issuance was backed by Government Guarantee and Letter of Support.” "Moving forward, the Government is committed to the 1MDB asset recovery efforts, and will always ensure adequate allocation to settle 1MDB debts in order to manage the national financial burden created by 1MDB,'' said Tengku Zafrul.
On Sept 16, KPMG agreed to the settlement to resolve all claims related to its fiduciary duties on auditing 1MDB accounts for the period of 2010 to 2012.
The settlement with KPMG, valued at more than 800 times the audit fees earned by KPMG, represents one of the largest 1MDB-related settlements by an audit firm in South-east Asia, Tengku Zafrul said in a statement then.