NINE QUESTIONS FOR SARAWAK REPORT: EXPLOSIVE / THE LEAKED JUSTO CONFESSION

"EXPLOSIVE" IS "BREAKING", ONLY LOUDER

LEAKED: WRITTEN CONFESSION OF XAVIER JUSTO

(SARAWAK REPORT), 26 June, 2015–

Bangkok Remand Prison

On Friday the 26th of Jun 2015, I hereby confess to my full involvement in, and responsibility for, the offences for which I am charged. They are the attempted blackmail and attempted extortion of PetroSaudi. I make this confession of my own free will and accord without any pressure, duress or outside influence. I do not wish to have a lawyer present.

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RELATED (1-3)
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[1: EPISODES / DRAMATIS PERSONÆ–WHO'S WHO OF CLARE BROWN –"I further request that Mr Justo is given all the protection due to a whistleblower in this situation and that proper steps are taken to investigate a grave financial fraud in which PetroSaudi International has played a major role." - Clare Rewcastle Brown - Sarawak Report, July 24, 2015]

[1A: EPISODES / CLARE AND CULLEN–THE DO-SI-DO – "We do not know whether Cullen Johnson/Dirk Pitt is a genuine battler against high-level corruption (entirely possible) or someone hired to lure us into a trap (equally possible)." - Sarawak Report, May 8, 2013]

[1B: EPISODES / DRAMATIS PERSONÆ–WHO'S WHO OF CLARE BROWN – "[Johnson and White] concocted bogus and stunningly realistic international banking information that would lead one party to believe the other had millions of dollars in assets offshore in places like the Channel Islands or the Cayman Islands. Over a period of time, the detectives would charge increasingly higher fees in return for more “banking information.” Often that information was presented in court as real and it took lawyers and judges years to understand it was false." - Toronto Star, January 17, 2014]

[2: VISUAL AIDS / EXHIBIT 3 – "Squeezed out - former partner Ting Check Sii is looking for the return of his investment." - Sarawak Report, January 27, 2015]

[2A: EPISODES / DRAMATIS PERSONÆ–WHO'S WHO OF CLARE BROWN – "Tanaka is in substance, Dato Ting [Check Sii]’s mouthpiece ... I completely reject Tanaka’s contention on the Oral Agreements ... There is simply no credible evidence to substantiate the existence of the oral agreements at all material times ... I need only outline a few broad reasons here ... Tanaka’s case was originally premised on the purported directors’ resolutions of 1993 and 1994, which I find to be fabricated." - Justice Edmund Leow of The High Court of Singapore for 'Suit No 783 of 2012', June 29, 2015]

[3: BREAKING / CLARE REWCASTLE TALKS BACK–WITH HILARIOUS RESULTS! – "Now they are working off “confessions’ [sic.] made by Justo as he tries to please his captors in order to get out of jail. Why are [sic.] NST trying to protect crooks?" - Sarawak Report, September, 8 2015]

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I fully admit my criminal behaviour and accept my guilt in these matters. I just want to set the record straight and apologise to those who I have wronged. I have conspired with others and further admit offenses of theft of data, handling stolen goods, selling stolen data and IT equipment to third parties and attempting to launder the proceeds of sale. My only motivation for selling the data that I stole was for monetary gain and I never considered myself a whistle-blower.

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RELATED (1-4)
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[2: EPISODES / CLARE AND CULLEN–THE DO-SI-DO – "We do not know whether Cullen Johnson/Dirk Pitt is a genuine battler against high-level corruption (entirely possible) or someone hired to lure us into a trap (equally possible)." - Sarawak Report, May 8, 2013]

[2A: EPISODES / DRAMATIS PERSONÆ–WHO'S WHO OF CLARE BROWN – "[Johnson and White] concocted bogus and stunningly realistic international banking information that would lead one party to believe the other had millions of dollars in assets offshore in places like the Channel Islands or the Cayman Islands. Over a period of time, the detectives would charge increasingly higher fees in return for more “banking information.” Often that information was presented in court as real and it took lawyers and judges years to understand it was false." - Toronto Star, January 17, 2014]

[3: VISUAL AIDS / EXHIBIT 3 – "Squeezed out - former partner Ting Check Sii is looking for the return of his investment." - Sarawak Report, January 27, 2015]

[3A: EPISODES / DRAMATIS PERSONÆ–WHO'S WHO OF CLARE BROWN – "Tanaka is in substance, Dato Ting [Check Sii]’s mouthpiece ... I completely reject Tanaka’s contention on the Oral Agreements ... There is simply no credible evidence to substantiate the existence of the oral agreements at all material times...I need only outline a few broad reasons here ... Tanaka’s case was originally premised on the purported directors’ resolutions of 1993 and 1994, which I find to be fabricated." - Justice Edmund Leow of The High Court of Singapore for 'Suit No 783 of 2012', June 29, 2015]

[4: BREAKING / CLARE REWCASTLE TALKS BACK–WITH HILARIOUS RESULTS! – "Now they are working off “confessions’ [sic.] made by Justo as he tries to please his captors in order to get out of jail. Why are [sic.] NST trying to protect crooks?" - Sarawak Report, September 8, 2015]

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I worked at PetroSaudi from March 2010 to April 2011. I had two different roles while I worked there. I headed up the IT function and I was also executive administrator of a couple of group companies. I had this job due to my previous administrative roles and my longstanding friendship with Tarek Obaid, PetroSaudi’s CEO. These roles gave me privileged access to PetroSaudi’s confidential data and IT systems.

In March 2011, it became clear that my employment with PetroSaudi would be terminated. I started to worry about how I would provide for myself and family if I didn’t have a job and decided that I needed to protect my financial security. I felt that the best way to do this was to use my access to PetroSaudi’s IT systems to take as much data and information as I could. I didn’t do this because I thought PetroSaudi had done anything wrong. I never saw any wrongdoing while I was at PetroSaudi or afterwards. I did it because I knew the data was important to the company and confidential and I thought I might be able to sell it.

I accessed the data by breaking into my colleagues’ computers and making bulk downloads of whatever I could find onto portable hard drives and memory sticks. I wasn’t looking for anything in particular – just as much data as possible to have the maximum chance of it being valuable. I took this data knowing that I was committing a criminal offence. In total I stole about 90 GB of data which included emails, documents and other material. This was done over several days during March and April 2011.

In early April my contract was terminated and I signed a Settlement Agreement with PetroSaudi. The Settlement Agreement was negotiated by my lawyer and PetroSaudi’s lawyer and contained normal terms requiring me to return data and property and respect confidentiality. I also received a settlement payment based on my salary and my notice period and recognising my friendship with Tarek Obaid. Shortly before signing my Settlement Agreement (original payment to Justo was a settlement agreement and not the first blackmail as some people believe) I downloaded all of the contents of my PetroSaudi computers and drives onto other portable drives that I took from PetroSaudi’s IT stores. I then returned the original IT equipment to give the impression I had handed back all data and equipment.

However, I kept the drives onto which I downloaded all of that data. I admit that all of these actions also breach my Settlement Agreement in addition to my attempts to blackmail PetroSaudi and to sell and transfer the data.

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RELATED (1)
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[1: BREAKING / BUSINESSMAN AT CENTER OF MAJOR MALAYSIAN CORRUPTION SCANDAL IS JAILED IN THAILAND – “Justo was trying to publish corporate information and given the public interest, it is right to describe him as a whistle-blower”. - Clare Rewcastle Brown - Press Examiner, August 17, 2015]

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I understand that I will have to pay back all of my settlement payment to PetroSaudi and realise that I am liable to pay damages to PetroSaudi under my Settlement Agreement as a result of my actions.

In July 2013 I contacted Patrick Mahony and demanded 3.5 Million Swiss Francs for the return of the stolen data. Over the next 5 months I sent further emails to Patrick Mahony demanding money otherwise I would sell the stolen data to other interested parties, though at this point I hadn’t contacted anyone else. I knew that releasing this huge amount of confidential data would damage PetroSaudi.

I met with Patrick Mahony at the Shangri La Hotel in Bangkok in October 2013 where I verbally threatened him that if PetroSaudi did not pay me for the stolen data I would sell it to others 1 and cause damage to PetroSaudi. Patrick told me that PetroSaudi hadn’t done anything wrong and there was nothing in the data I stole that would suggest wrongdoing. PetroSaudi refused to pay.

When the blackmail didn’t work I tried to find a buyer for the data and after a while was contacted by Clare Brown. This was in May or June 2014. I know that she is a journalist with Sawarak [sic.] Report and a relation of Gordon Brown, a UK former prime minister. I met Clare Brown in Bangkok about 10 days after she contacted me. She told me that anything I had involving PetroSaudi’s transaction with 1MDB would fetch a good price and agreed she would facilitate the sale of the stolen data to others.

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RELATED (1)
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She promised me I would make at least a couple of million from this sale. During the next six months I kept regular contact with Clare Brown. She tried a few buyers including the entourage of Anwar Ibrahim but wasn’t successful.

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RELATED (1-4)
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[1: BREAKING / CLARE REWCASTLE TALKS BACK–WITH HILARIOUS RESULTS! – "No one from PKR offered to pay Justo – they all laughed at the money he was asking and said if they had such money there was a queue of things to spend it on." - Sarawak Report, September 8, 2015]

[2: CURRENT / #ICYMI: CLARE ADMITS TO CONSPIRACY RING, DEFRAUDING JUSTO – "But when it emerged they were not paying Justo, I had to deal with a lot of upset from him (Justo). I did not want to have anything to do with it but offered to try and mediate. It did not come to anything." - Clare Rewcastle Brown - Malaysia Chronicle, July 25, 2015]

[2A: 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]

[2B: CURRENT / THE JUSTO CONFESSION ON THE STRAITS TIMES OF SINGAPORE - "{Ms Rewcastle-Brown had agreed to receive the US$2 million from the buyer and send {me} US$250,000 a month for consultancy services}. I don't know if she received the money or not, (because) I was arrested...I have no idea." - Xavier Andre Justo - The Straits Times, July 24, 2015]

[2C: CURRENT / JUSTO AND THE EDGE MEDIA GROUP – "Yes, we misled [Justo]. 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). All the more so when we know he will be upset with us because we will eventually not pay him what he wants." - Datuk Tong Kooi Ong and Ho Kay Tat - The Straits Times, July 24, 2015]

[3: 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]

[4: BREAKING / CLARE REWCASTLE TALKS BACK–WITH HILARIOUS RESULTS! – "1A– Conspiracy to commit offences outside the United Kingdom. (11) Any act done by means of a message (however communicated) is to be treated for the purposes of the fourth condition as done in England and Wales if the message is sent or received in England and Wales. (12) In any proceedings in respect of an offence triable by virtue of this section, it is immaterial to guilt whether or not the accused was a British citizen at the time of any act or other event proof of which is required for conviction of the offence." - UK CRIMINAL LAW ACT 1977, August 11, 2015]

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In February 2015 Clare arranged a meeting at which she was present with Tong Kooi Ong and the editor of one of his newspapers Mr Ho Kay Tat. The meeting took place in the Fullerton Bay Hotel in Singapore. During this meeting I agreed to sell all of PetroSaudi’s stolen data to Tong for the sum of 2 million USD. I originally asked for 3 million USD and this was negotiated down to the two million.

We only discussed the content of the data at a very high level as they said they were only interested in the 1MDB transaction and I hadn’t worked on it. So I showed them I had a lot of documents and emails from the 1MDB transaction but I couldn’t explain how the documents worked, or what they meant, and I couldn’t give them any background to the transaction. Tong and Clare told me that the material would be used to attack the current Malaysian Government and the Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak.

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RELATED (1-3)
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[1: 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]

[2: CURRENT / THE JUSTO CONFESSION ON THE STRAITS TIMES OF SINGAPORE – “Bunkum. What I have presented on 1MDB and has been clarified by The Edge and corroborated by several other official sources is a coherent explanation of events, versus the dodging, changing stories of 1MDB. - Clare Rewcastle Brown - The Straits Times, July 24, 2015]

[3: CURRENT / THE JUSTO CONFESSION ON THE STRAITS TIMES OF SINGAPORE - "{Justo was} full of untruths...Why would I wish to alter anything? If I had, why haven't 1MDB and PetroSaudi brought out the evidence of such altering in all of the last five or so months?" - Clare Rewcastle Brown - The Straits Times, July 24, 2015]

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They didn’t explain to me how they would do this, they just said they wanted some original documents and emails to build a story around. Clare said that as long as I could give them genuine documents, the contents of those documents didn’t matter because she would do the rest. I didn’t know what she meant by that.

– - –
RELATED (1-3)
– - –

[1: EPISODES / DRAMATIS PERSONÆ–WHO'S WHO OF CLARE BROWN – "[Johnson and White] concocted bogus and stunningly realistic international banking information that would lead one party to believe the other had millions of dollars in assets offshore in places like the Channel Islands or the Cayman Islands. Over a period of time, the detectives would charge increasingly higher fees in return for more “banking information.” Often that information was presented in court as real and it took lawyers and judges years to understand it was false." - Toronto Star, January 17, 2014]

[1A: EPISODES / DRAMATIS PERSONÆ–WHO'S WHO OF CLARE BROWN – "Emails intercepted by the IRS also helped the case. In an affidavit filed by special agent Brian Pelfrey, he describes how the emails, obtained using a search warrant, showed that [Cullen] Johnson, White and Grontis were discussing the “preparation” of the banking reports." - Toronto Star, April 12, 2013]

[2: CURRENT / CLARE AND CULLEN–THE DO-SI-DO – "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]

[2A: CURRENT / CLARE AND CULLEN–THE DO-SI-DO – "Here is the full story of what happened and readers should indeed prepare for a truly ugly tale, involving theft, hacking, dirty PR and smear tactics. It all began when shortly before the general election in 2013 my mobile phone was pickpocketed at night in my home street in London. On this phone were my skype and gmail messages." - Clare Rewcastle Brown - Sarawak Report, January 10, 2015]

[3: VISUAL AIDS / EXHIBIT 8 – "Evidence from Dato Ting." - Sarawak Report, January 27, 2015]

[3A: EPISODES / DRAMATIS PERSONÆ–WHO'S WHO OF CLARE BROWN – "Tanaka is in substance, Dato Ting [Check Sii]’s mouthpiece ... I completely reject Tanaka’s contention on the Oral Agreements ... There is simply no credible evidence to substantiate the existence of the oral agreements at all material times ... I need only outline a few broad reasons here ... Tanaka’s case was originally premised on the purported directors’ resolutions of 1993 and 1994, which I find to be fabricated." - Justice Edmund Leow of The High Court of Singapore for 'Suit No 783 of 2012', June 29, 2015]

[3B: EPISODES / CLARE AND CULLEN–THE DO-SI-DO – "[I] will not retract a single word as the book has been “meticulously researched and is strictly fact-based.” - Lukas Straumann - Bruno Manser Fonds, November 3, 2014]

[3C: EPISODES / CLARE AND CULLEN–THE DO-SI-DO – "3. Sources used for this report...this report draws specifically on the following sources:- Sarawak Report, a campaign website run by British journalist Clare Rewcastle Brown.- Court depositions by former Taib family employees and business partners:- Ross J. Boyert: former Vice President of Taib family-owned Sakti International Corporation in California, US12- Ting Check Sii: former owner [sic.] of now Taib family-controlled Sanyan Sdn. Bhd in Malaysia.- Farok Majeed: former business associate of Onn Mahmud in Singapore and Australia." - Bruno Manser Fonds, 2014]

[4: FOCUS / CLARE'S CONTRADICTIONS–THE FORKING OF THE TONGUE – "[Lester Melanyi] also claimed that BMF, a non-profit conservation group, paid him money, which was banked into his account by Rewcastle-Brown, to edit the articles." - The Straits Times, July 21, 2015]

[4A: CURRENT / CLARE'S FACELESS DONORS–MORE DOUBLE STANDARDS – "Clare said Radio Free Sarawak (RFS) is largely funded by a reputable European foundation which focuses on rainforest issues. We also receive...mainly small donations from people...through our site's donation page." - The Sun Daily, September 1, 2015]

[4B: FOCUS / CLARE'S CONTRADICTIONS – THE FORKING OF THE TONGUE – "The funding for her radio, she says, comes primarily from a single “European philanthropist” who wishes to remain anonymous; listeners also send donations through the website." - Foreign Policy, March 13, 2013]

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Tong stated he didn’t want to involve the Saudis or PetroSaudi which was important to me. He said that this was an internal Malaysian matter only. He asked Clare to write an article based on the stolen information and for him to proof read the article before publication.

Clare agreed to do this. However, subsequently this proved to be a lie. It was agreed by Tong that I would hand him the data at this meeting and he would pay 2 million USD the following day.

Then I gave Ho Kay Tat PetroSaudi’s stolen data contained on a stolen hard drive. Tong’s IT team who were present took it off him checked the data and copied it for Tong. I handed a second hard drive to Clare Brown. A few days later Clare informed me that the copy was corrupted and I sent her a further copy on a memory stick using DHL to London.

We met again in Singapore a few days after that to discuss the data some more and finalise payment. One or two days after that second meeting I opened a BVI trust in Singapore and tried to open a bank account at DBS Bank to receive the payment. However DBS refused to open the account. Tong told me that he would transfer the money to this account using his UOB Bank account in Singapore, he was unable to do this as DBS refused my account.

I opened an account in Abu Dhabi asking Tong to pay the money to this account using whatsapp. He refused claiming that Jho Low has too many interests in the region. I then offered my Justo-Consulting in Hong Kong for payment, again using whatsapp. Tong refused to pay claiming it has my name which was a risk. I did not put the money in my Swiss account because of the growing story around the Malaysian/PetroSaudi situation. In fact I closed the account and moved the money to Koh Samui to my wife for safety.

Tong then offered to pay me by cash if I travelled to Singapore, this would be done of several trips. I declined this option fearing detection at airports and exposing myself to arrest.

The latest proposal was to pay me using Clare Brown. We all agreed to do this. It would involve Tong paying her the 2,000,000 USD in the UK and her paying me a monthly amount disguised as a consultancy fee via the Sarawak Report. She proposed that I opened a news desk for the South East 2 Asia Region for which she would first pay me 350,000 USD, followed by a further 1,250,000 USD later.

She told me that she had asked her UK lawyers to set this up and I was waiting for payment when I was arrested. I am aware and fully acknowledge that this would constitute money laundering.

However, so far I have received no money. I still have copies of PetroSaudi’s data which I’m storing in Koh Samui. It’s stored a Samui Storage and I authorised the Royal Thai Police to recover and seize this. Also stored are the whatsapp conversations I had with Clare, Ho Kay Tat and Tong and they are kept on a USB stick. It’s in a black suitcase made by Tumi and in their company safe.

I accept my dishonesty and greed. I would like to sincerely apologise to Tarek Obaid and Patrick Mahony for the harm stress and anxiety I caused them as individuals. I would like to apologise for my criminal behaviour to the Royal Thai Police and the Thai Courts as well as the people of Thailand.

I would also like to apologise to the Malaysian government and the people of Malaysia for the harm and upset I have caused them by releasing private data concerning business which has nothing to do with me. I never foresaw the magnitude and harm my actions will cause. I deeply regret what I have done and I fully accept the punishment and authority of the Thai Courts and legal system and I will plead guilty when I go before them.