China’s largest oil group CNPC refutes subsidiary’s role in 1MDB money-laundering scandal
The pipeline project unit of China’s state-owned oil and gas giant says funds from China’s EximBank were paid only to its own bank accounts
China Petroleum Pipeline Engineering (CPP), a unit of China’s state-owned oil and gas giant China National Petroleum Corp, had refuted a media report that money paid for its pipeline projects in Malaysia was diverted to third-party Cayman Islands companies involved in money laundering.
“Over US$2 billion” that Malaysia’s finance ministry paid CPP for pipeline projects under China’s Belt and Road Initiative - financed by loans from the Export-Import Bank of China - had been instead diverted to pay debts owed by Malaysia’s state investment fund 1MDB, which is involved in a US$4.5 billion money-laundering and corruption scandal.
On Wednesday, CPP issued a statement citing news reports from several unnamed media outlets that “contain blatantly false information with respect to (its) pipeline projects in Malaysia”.
Further Reading: Is Malaysia’s 1MDB scandal a Razak family affair?
“We wish to make it very clear that all the funds from Export-Import Bank of China were only paid directly to CPP’s bank accounts,” the Chinese oil company said. “This is in accordance with the strict anti-money-laundering banking rules, regulations, and signed legal agreements.”
It added also, that any allegations or statements that funds from the Export-Import Bank of China were paid to any Cayman Islands-based companies are “completely false”.
On Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal reported that Malaysian officials are investigating whether the government of former Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak had used funds from the China-backed infrastructure programme to help pay off debts that 1MDB owed to an Abu Dhabi fund.