CPP denies funds used to pay debts linked to 1MDB
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 ExportImport Bank of China (Exim Bank China) were paid directly to CPP’s bank accounts and no such payment had been made to any third-party Cayman Islandbased company.
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,” it said in a statement yesterday 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 in response to an English daily which reported that despite a freeze imposed by the Penang government on transactions involving 1MDB Air Itam land in Penang, the 94.7ha had been 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 last year, 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 Finance Ministry’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.
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. PETROLEUM PIPELINE ENGINEERING CO LTD