KUALA LUMPUR: China Petroleum Pipeline Engineering Co Ltd (CPP) has denied that funds from its two pipeline projects in Malaysia were used to pay debts linked to 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB).
CPP said all funds from Export-Import Bank of China (EXIM Bank China) were only paid directly to CPP’s bank accounts, and no such payment had been made to any third-party Cayman Island-based company and/or companies.
This was in accordance with the strict anti-money laundering banking rules, regulations, and signed legal agreements, it added.
“CPP notes that several media outlets have recently published news reports which contain blatantly false information with respect to the company’s pipeline projects in Malaysia,” CPPP said in a statement today following allegations that CPP's loan was laundered and used to bail out 1MDB.
“Any allegations or statements to the contrary are completely false. We request that the media be factual in their reporting and not be influenced or pressured by unnamed sources to report based on false information that defames CPP,” it said.
The statement was in response to The Edge Financial Daily report that despite a freeze imposed by the Penang state government on transactions involving 1MDB Air Itam land in Penang, all 94.7ha had been surreptitiously sold to Cayman Islands-based Silk Road Southeast Asia Real Estate Ltd.
The report quoted Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng as saying that the land was sold for 4.25 billion yuan (RM2.7 billion) on August 24, 2017, netting a profit of RM1.32 billion based on the original RM1.38 billion purchase price.
The report said it is also believed that the money might have passed from the Ministry of Finance’s wholly owned subsidiary, Suria Strategic Energy Resources Sdn Bhd’s gas pipeline project that was awarded to China Petroleum Pipeline Bureau on November 1, 2016.