Malaysia's embattled 1MDB Chief claims transparency

Former investment banker Arul Kanda took a job in Malaysia last year and walked into the crossfire of the country's biggest political crisis since Prime Minister Najib Razak came to power in 2009.

Now, even as the finances of 1Malaysia Development Bhd. are being investigated in at least three countries, Kanda, president of the governmentlinked fund, says his job sorting out the organization is done.

"I only signed up for onethird of what I ended up doing," he said in an interview at the fund's headquarters in Kuala Lumpur. "I did not sign up for the investigations because that happened after I joined, and I definitely didn't sign up for the extent of the comms-slash-politics that I had to deal with."

Kanda was brought in January 2015 when the debtridden fund was teetering on the edge of default. Within months the company became embroiled in allegations of financial irregularities that sparked probes in Malaysia, Singapore and Switzerland. 1MDB, whose advisory board is headed by Najib, has consistently denied wrongdoing.

Kanda echoes statements by Najib and other government officials that the allegations are unfounded and politically motivated. He said 1MDB hasn't been contacted by any foreign legal authorities to help with investigations. 'Politicized' Allegations "The misunderstandings about 1MDB stem from the fact that what was a business problem became politicized and became a tool by the opposition or those not aligned with the government to topple a democratically-elected prime minister and government," he said. "That's the reality of it."

He says his job was to turn 1MDB around and sort out its debt.

"From my perspective, I'm done," said Kanda, a trained lawyer. "Everything's signed. Legal agreements are there, they're binding. I'm leaving the company" with available funds, he said.