Justo says no regrets over role in exposing 1MDB
Published on: Thursday, September 20, 2018
Selangor: Whistleblower Andre Xavier Justo (pic), who is credited with breaking the 1MDB scandal in Malaysia, has no regrets over his role in the matter despite the price of 18 months spent behind bars.Looking back on the string of events, including the government's recent seizure of a luxury yacht linked to businessman Low Taek Jho and the release of a book chronicling the scandal, Justo said he was proud of the part he had played."Revealing the truth is a noble act, but it comes with a very high price," he told FMT.
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"In the end, only the outcome is the reward."Justo, who was arrested in 2015 for leaking documents from oil and gas company PetroSaudi International relating to its joint venture with 1MDB, said he had played only a minor role in the entire affair.He added however that he was glad to have contributed to "stopping the 1MDB machine" as well as the removal of former prime minister Najib who is currently under investigation by Malaysian authorities.The PetroSaudi documents, which were published by Malaysian and international media groups in 2015, formed the basis of the money laundering investigation into the matter.
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They also landed Justo in a Thai jail for 18 months for allegedly demanding payment in exchange for not disclosing confidential information.Six months before his arrest, Justo handed Sarawak Report editor Clare Rewcastle-Brown thousands of documents, including 227,000 emails from the servers of his former employer, PetroSaudi, which appeared to shed light on the alleged theft of hundreds of millions of dollars from state-owned investment fund 1MDB.
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The documents which he leaked set off a chain reaction of investigations in at least six countries, leading to what US Attorney-General Loretta Lynch described as "the largest kleptocracy case" in US history.He now hopes to continue helping to ensure that justice is served."I will not stop," he told FMT. "The rest to be done is the duty of the Malaysian people."As for "The Billion Dollar Whale" written by Wall Street Journal journalists Tom Wright and Bradley Hope, Justo said he had yet to read the book."I haven't asked to check the facts concerning my involvement," he added. "I trust that the journalists wrote it based on facts and professionalism."Justo also brushed aside Najib's claim that the billions of ringgit channelled into his account were a donation from the Saudi royal family."The Saudis don't do that," he said, adding that the money trail was established and the origins of the funds proven."It comes from the money of the Malaysian people," he said.Although he has little faith that those involved in the alleged crimes will admit to their roles, he voiced certainty that time would reveal the truth and the criminals would be sent to jail."They have no other place to go. It's just a question of time."According to the US Department of Justice, the US$681 million (RM2.6 billion according to the exchange rate at the time) came from Tanore Finance Corporation, whose source of funds was 1MDB's third bond raised in 2013, supposedly for a joint venture between the investment fund and Abu Dhabi Malaysia Investment Company.Najib has maintained that the money came from the Saudi royal family and recently revealed several documents to confirm this.He said the official bank documents indicated that the funds were transferred from the bank account of Saudi Arabia's finance ministry and that of Prince Faisal bin Turkey bin Al-Saud.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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