{
  "id": 17420474,
  "title": "‘Recovered And Repurposed’ – Najib’s Notorious China Pipeline Heist Is Covered-Up?",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/31/recovered-and-repurposed-najibs-notorious-china-pipeline-heist-is",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-10-31T14:35:26.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Sarawak Report",
    "slug": "sarawak-report",
    "url": "https://www.sarawakreport.org/2026/10/recovered-and-repurposed-najibs-notorious-china-pipeline-heist-is-covered-up/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "In May, a report by Sarawak indicated that Jho Low was involved in talks between Malaysia and China to address the Belt & Road project he had negotiated for Najib Razak in 2016. Recently, it was announced that Malaysia had \"recovered\" RM5 billion from an RM8 billion loan that went missing in 2017/18, by reassigning the funds to a new loan for the Northern Perak Water Supply Scheme. However, no details have been provided on how this was accomplished or where the missing RM5 billion was found. The official statement only mentions the achievement of \"partial recovery\" on the loan through repurposing the RM5 billion. The BERSATU pipeline and Multi-purpose pipeline contracts were signed with Chinese authorities during Najib's negotiations for the ECRL, another Belt & Road project funded by China EXIM Bank. The ECRL contract was designed to repay 1MDB's massive $7.5 billion debt, while the pipelines were meant to pay off RM4 billion owed by SRC to the KWAP pension fund. It is alleged that the Chinese government would pay construction companies inflated fees in exchange for repayment of 1MDB's debts. The pipeline contracts allowed for 88% of the costs to be paid upfront, with Suria Strategic Energy Resources Sdn. Bhd. (SSER) receiving RM7.81 billion from China EXIM Bank in March 2017. However, only around $150 million was found when the Harapan Government seized the company's Malaysian bank account the following year. SSER was penalized RM18 million for violating Bank Negara regulations on foreign lending. The Madani government announced on Friday that Malaysia is still responsible for repaying the RM8 billion loan, despite the pipelines remaining uncompleted. The government's press release does not explain how the RM5 billion was found after all these years to be repurposed in this manner.",
  "summary": "In May, we revealed negotiations involving Jho Low were underway to resolve the outstanding repayments due on Malaysia's RM8 billion pipeline loan, raised by 1MDB/SRC from China, from which the money had disappeared. In return for writing off the debt, it was agreed there would be no mention of China's collusion in Jho's apparent theft of the money. Now the terms have been announced as a…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}