NINE QUESTIONS FOR SARAWAK REPORT: CURRENT / JUSTO AND THE EDGE MEDIA GROUP

August 20, 2015

CURRENT / JUSTO AND THE EDGE MEDIA GROUP

OWNER, PUBLISHER OF THE EDGE ADMIT MISLEADING SWISS NATIONAL INTO BELIEVING HE WOULD BE PAID FOR DOCUMENTS ON 1MDB
REPORTED BY THE STRAITS TIMES

KUALA LUMPUR, July 24, 2015–

The owner and the publisher of The Edge Media Group admitted on Friday to misleading Swiss national Xavier Andre Justo into believing that he would be paid for handing over 400,000 documents relating to 1Malaysia Development Berhad's (1MDB) aborted venture with Saudi oil firm PetroSaudi.

In a joint response to The Straits Times' interview with the former PetroSaudi executive, Datuk Tong Kooi Ong and Mr Ho Kay Tat said: "Yes, we misled him."

"But that was the only way to get hold of the evidence to expose how a small group of Malaysians and foreigners cheated the people of Malaysia of US$1.83 billion (S$2.5 billion)," they said in a statement posted on the Malaysian Insider, a news portal owned by the media group.

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[RELATED: CURRENT / CLARE REWCASTLE BROWN'S INTERVIEW ON CHANNEL NEWSASIA REGARDING THE WARRANT FOR HER ARREST – "The Prime Minister has now finally had it announced through the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission that that was not anything to do with 1MDB money, which actually certainly I and I don’t know of any investigative reporters who said it was." - Clare Rewcastle Brown - Channel NewsAsia, August 5, 2015]

[RELATED: SENSATIONAL FINDINGS! PRIME MINISTER NAJIB RAZAK’S PERSONAL ACCOUNTS LINKED TO 1MDB MONEY TRAIL - MALAYSIA EXCLUSIVE - Sarawak Report, July 2, 2015]

[RELATED: BREAKING / SWISS NATIONAL GIVEN 3-YEAR JAIL TERM FOR 1MDB-LINKED BLACKMAIL – "A report published last month in Singaporean daily the Straits Times claimed that Justo had affirmed that the businessman and Clare Rewcastle-Brown, the editor of the Sarawak report, wanted to use the data to “bring down the Malaysian government.” He also said that his interlocutors had evoked the possibility of “modifying the documents”, which Rewcastle-Brown has denied. The country’s anti-corruption agency later said the $700 million was donations, effectively clearing Razak of wrongdoing." – FultonCounty.COM, August 17, 2015]

[RELATED: FOCUS / CLARE REWCASTLE BROWN'S IGNORANCE OF HER OWN COUNTRY'S LEGAL CODES - "2– Fraud by false representation; (2) A representation is false if— (b) the person making it knows that it is, or might be, untrue or misleading." - UK FRAUD ACT 2006, August 16, 2015]

[RELATED: EPISODES / DRAMATIS PERSONÆ–WHO'S WHO OF CLARE BROWN – "Therefore, it was only after strikingly similar financial information [from Cullen Johnson] was submitted in a court hearing related to Abu Bekir’s divorce and then printed in all the Malaysian media, that we too subsequently quoted what the Malaysian media reported had been said in court." - Clare Rewcastle Brown - Sarawak Report, January 10, 2015]

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Both men, however, denied tampering with the documents as claimed by Justo.

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[RELATED: CURRENT / THE JUSTO CONFESSION ON THE STRAITS TIMES OF SINGAPORE - "I can say that I gave those documents to two groups of people, [one was Ms Rewcastle-Brown and "her IT guy" and the other was the Malaysian businessman and his colleague.] [Those {I} met had talked about using the documents] to try to bring down the Malaysian government. [They also referred to plans to] modify the documents. [{I}...admitted that {I} had stolen company data - some 90 gigabytes worth - when {I} left in 2011." - Xavier Andre Justo - The Straits Times, July 24, 2015]

[RELATED: CURRENT / JUSTO AND THE EDGE MEDIA GROUP - "Mr Tong and Mr Ho said in their statement that if they had 'intended to tamper with the documents and that our objective was to bring down the government, surely if we had such intentions we would not tell it to someone we were meeting for the first time.'" – The Straits Times, July 24, 2015]

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Datuk Tong is a Malaysian businessman who owns The Edge Media Group, while Mr Ho is the publisher and chief executive.

The Edge had earlier this week handed over all evidence concerning its allegations that Malaysian businessman Low Taek Jho, better known as Jho Low, and PetroSaudi cheated the Malaysian public by using 1MDB as a front.

The state investor, which racked up debts totalling RM42 billion (S$15 billion) in just five years, has become a political liability for Prime Minister Najib Razak.

The Malaysian leader has not denied the July 3 allegations by the Wall Street Journal and London-based website Sarawak Report that US$700 million of 1MDB-linked funds were transferred into his personal accounts over the past two years, saying only that he has never used public money for personal gains.

But Mr Justo's arrest in Thailand last month over allegations of extortion and blackmail of PetroSaudi has led to claims of a conspiracy to topple the Najib administration.

In his interview with The Straits Times published on Friday, Mr Justo said Mr Tong had agreed to pay him US$2 million in exchange for data he had taken from PetroSaudi before leaving the firm, but he did not receive any payment up to the point of his arrest.

He added that Mr Tong and Sarawak Report founder Clare Rewcastle-Brown had told him they planned to modify the data to bring down Mr Najib.

Ms Rewcastle-Brown has dismissed such claims as "bunkum" while Mr Tong and Mr Ho said in their statement that if they had "intended to tamper with the documents and that our objective was to bring down the government, surely if we had such intentions we would not tell it to someone we were meeting for the first time."

"All the more so when we know he will be upset with us because we will eventually not pay him what he wants," they said, adding that they had digitally fingerprinted the hard disc delivered by Mr Justo containing the leaked data, and handed it this week to Malaysia's central bank, police and anti-corruption agency. The three bodies form a Special Task Force on 1MDB, along with the Attorney General's Chambers.

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[RELATED: FOCUS / CLARE REWCASTLE BROWN'S IGNORANCE OF HER OWN COUNTRY'S LEGAL CODES -"11– Obtaining services dishonestly. (2) A person obtains services in breach of this subsection if– (a) they are made available on the basis that the payment has been, is being, or will be made for or in respect of them, (b) he obtains them without any payment having been made for or in respect of them or without payment having been made in full, and (c) when he obtains them, he knows– (i) that they are being made available on the basis described in paragraph (a), or (ii) that they might be, but intends that payment will not be made, or will not be made in full." - UK FRAUD ACT 2006, August 16, 2015]

[RELATED: FOCUS / CLARE REWCASTLE BROWN'S IGNORANCE OF HER OWN COUNTRY'S LEGAL CODES – "1A– Conspiracy to commit offences outside the United Kingdom." - UK CRIMINAL LAW ACT 1977, August 11, 2015]

[RELATED: BREAKING / BUSINESSMAN AT CENTER OF MAJOR MALAYSIAN CORRUPTION SCANDAL IS JAILED IN THAILAND – “I did pursue [Justo] doggedly to get the material. In the end he surrendered it for free." - Clare Rewcastle Brown - The Telegraph, August 17, 2015]

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Mr Tong and Mr Ho also pointed out “that so many government agencies are now investigating 1MDB and that it is now almost an insolvent company that needs to be bailed out validates all the work The Edge Media Group has done to expose what had happened.

"We have done nothing wrong and we are here to assist investigators unlike some who seem to have disappeared," they concluded.

Thai police arrested Justo on June 22 at his residence on the resort island of Koh Samui.

A former head of IT at the London office of Petro Saudi, Justo has admitted that he had stolen company data - some 90 gigabytes worth - when he left in 2011.