KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 8 ― Former PetroSaudi International (PSI) executive Xavier Andre Justo alleged that PKR lawmaker Nurul Izzah Anwar had offered to buy data on 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) that he stole from his employer, according to a news report.

Local daily New Straits Times (NST) reported today that Justo, who pled guilty last month in Thailand to attempting to blackmail Saudi-based PSI over purportedly incriminating documents, said in his written confession that he had rejected Nurul Izzah’s offer to pay him with promises of government contracts should Barisan Nasional (BN) lose power.

“I declined as Nurul wanted to pay US$2 million (RM8.69 million) in future government contracts when they come into power, instead of cash,” Justo was quoted saying.

NST also reported Justo as claiming that Clare Rewcastle-Brown, editor of London-based whistleblower site Sarawak Report, had acted as the intermediary between him and the Lembah Pantai MP.

“Around September 2014, Clare contacted me and invited me in (sic) Bangkok. She said the daughter of Anwar Ibrahim was interested in buying the data,” Justo was quoted saying, referring to Nurul Izzah.

Justo reportedly said that Rewcastle-Brown had contacted him in February to say that she and Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua from the DAP had arranged for the 1MDB data to be sold to The Edge Media Group owner Datuk Tong Kooi Ong.

Transcripts of three-month long conversations on mobile messaging app WhatsApp between Rewcastle-Brown, Justo, Tong and The Edge chief executive Ho Kay Tat, reportedly suggested that Rewcastle-Brown told Justo that she would get Pua to come in when Tong and Ho appeared to be stalling payment of US$2 million to Justo for the 1MDB data.

Justo, a Swiss national, reportedly said to Ho in a WhatsApp group message on March 19: “So you are telling me that you are not going to pay me as agreed in the bank that I have because you feel that this will expose you? I will then have no choice that to (sic) expose the truth.”

Ho reportedly said in response: “That exposes us and that makes it difficult for us to do a direct transaction...especially in Abu Dhabi, of all places!”.

NST reported that the four later agreed that Justo would be paid through Rewcastle-Brown.

“It would involve Tong paying her US$2 million in the United Kingdom, and her paying me a monthly amount disguised as a consultancy fee via the Sarawak Report, which she owns. She proposed that I open a news desk for the Southeast Asia region for which she would pay me US$350,000 followed by another US$1.25 million later.

“I am aware and fully acknowledge that this would constitute money laundering. However, I have not received any money,” Justo reportedly said.

Justo also reportedly claimed that Rewcastle-Brown had declined payment from him for acting as a broker and that the British investigative journalist had reportedly said it would be “payment enough” for her to bring down Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

Tong and Ho denied yesterday that the series of stories on debt-laden state investment firm 1MDB run by The Edge papers were part of an alleged conspiracy to topple Najib.

Pua has denied ever meeting Justo and said that he only knew about the latter’s existence after news of the Swiss national’s arrest in Bangkok was published.

Interpol has turned down Malaysia’s request to put Rewcastle-Brown on its wanted list after Malaysian police obtained an arrest warrant for the Briton, whose whistleblower site SR has been publishing exposes on the 1MDB controversy, accusing her of committing activities detrimental to parliamentary democracy.

Rewcastle-Brown also reportedly denied last July Justo’s allegations about her.