Malaysia seized $240mn from Chinese state firm over pipeline project

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia seized 1 billion ringgit ($243.49 million) from a bank account of state-owned China Petroleum Pipeline Engineering Ltd (CPP), Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said on Monday.

The seizure comes nearly a year after Malaysia suspended two pipeline projects, valued at $2.3 billion, on which CPP was the lead contractor. CPP is a unit of state energy giant China National Petroleum Corp.

Malaysia seized the funds because CPP was paid for 80% of the project when only 13% of the project had been completed, Mahathir told reporters.