Police in Thailand, who have former PetroSaudi director Xavier Andre Justo under arrest on suspicion of blackmail, said the Swiss national had met with a “Malaysian opposition leader” in Singapore before he sold classified information belonging to PetroSaudi, including those implicating sovereign development fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).
Royal Thai Police Commissioner from the Office of Information and Communication Technology Lt Gen Prawut Thavornsiri told the New Straits Times in Bangkok that Justo admitted to meeting with the Malaysian opposition leader in a Singapore hotel.
Prwaut however declined to name the opposition leader in question. Under Thai law, a suspect cannot be named before a warrant is issued for his arrest.
“He (Justo) met a very important person from a certain country, in Singapore. He then negotiated the selling price of the documents and later sold them to the buyer.”
Prawut said Justo also met with a media tycoon in the same hotel in Singapore.
Again, Prawut would not name the tycoon in question.
“We have confiscated Justo’s personal computer and we have managed to find documents and information pertaining to their meeting at a hotel in Singapore,” he said.
“Most of this information was found from Justo’s email correspondence and WhatsApp chat records.”
Justo had admitted to blackmailing his former employer, PetroSaudi International, and will be charged in Thailand with extortion and blackmail.
However, Justo denied falsifying documents that were eventually sold to “a certain news outlet in Europe”.
Prawut was also by the NST if Justo had sold the PetroSaudi documents to whistleblower site Sarawak Report, which has been actively pursuing an alleged trail of crime and corruption left by 1MDB and its partners. The senior Thai police officer declined to elaborate on the matter.
“Everyone knows which news organisation I am talking about,” he said.
