KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 18 — Police today confirmed that no probe has been launched on former 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) partner PetroSaudi International (PSI).
Inspector-general of police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar said no police report had been lodged in the country in connection to alleged misappropriation involving PSI.
“In relation to this, any speculation regarding the issue must stop immediately,” he said in a two-paragraph statement.
Yesterday, a Bangkok court sentenced Swiss national Xavier Andre Justo to three years’ jail for attempting to blackmail PSI, which is his former employer.
The 49-year-old former PSI director is believed to be the source of leaked documents on PSI’s US$1.2 billion (RM4.93 billion) joint-venture with Malaysian investment firm 1MDB, that purportedly suggest that hundreds of millions were siphoned out.
According to past reports, Justo had attempted to blackmail and extort 2.5 million Swiss Francs (RM10.53 million) from PSI over the release of these purportedly incriminating documents.
Justo later admitted to the blackmail charges to the Thai police and provided information on the data from PSI that he had stolen when he left the firm in 2011.
According to Justo in an interview last month by Singapore daily Straits Times (ST), the documents were eventually given to two groups — Sarawak Report’s Clare Rewcastle-Brown and her “IT” guy, and a “Malaysian businessman” and his colleague.
After the ST’s report was published, Malaysia’s The Edge Media Group’s Tong Kooi Ong and Ho Kay Tat confessed to misleading Justo by promising him US$2 million payment in exchange for the documents.
