At this juncture, he said, he was unaware of whether such a deal had been brokered.
“We know that the price was inflated, but whether there was such a deal, I have to check. I do not wish to say yes or no. I need to check the records to see if there were details explicitly mentioned.
“If this was something explicitly said in black and white, then we will pursue it,” he told reporters here today.
Lim was responding to questions on The Wall Street Journal’s (WSJ) revelation that Beijing had offered to help bail out 1MDB in 2016 in exchange for lucrative stakes in the two projects.
Citing minutes from meetings between Chinese and Malaysian officials, WSJ said the purposes of the projects eyed by China were meant to appear market-driven in nature despite their true aim to “shore up Najib Razak’s government, settle the 1MDB debts and deepen Chinese influence in Malaysia”.
Lim said he would be interested in getting a copy of the minutes.
He also confirmed that project costs had indeed been inflated.
“Look at the Sabah pipeline project,” he said. “How could RM8.3 billion have been paid, which is 88% of the entire project costs, even though the work done was only 10%? Something is wrong there.
“That is so clear. You don’t have to be an accountant or lawyer to know that something is wrong. I will have to check on that,” he said.
WSJ, which broke the 1MDB story in July 2015, also claimed Chinese officials had proposed that Beijing use its influence to try to persuade the US and other countries to drop their investigations into the state investment fund.
1MDB is under investigation in at least six countries including Singapore and Switzerland.