Malaysia Daily Opinion
It now emerges that Sarawak Report was a blackmail job gone awfully wrong for the perpetrators, Petro Saudi and the Malaysian government. Mr. Xavier Justo was an employee of PetroSaudi from March 2010 to April 2011 whereby he was the head of the IT function in PetroSaudi and also an executive administrator in several other unnamed companies. He was also good friends with the CEO of PetroSaudi due to which he had privileged access to PetroSaudi’s confidential data and IT system. In March 2011, he came to know that his employment with PetroSaudi will be terminated, which made him angry, for vengeance and making a quick buck he decided to steal data from PetroSaudi’s IT system.
The data was stolen not for any morality issues but for sole purpose of making money by selling confidential data to some interested parties. In July 2013, Mr. Xavier Justo contacted one Mr. Patrick Mahony of PetroSaudi and demanded 3.5 million swiss francs for the return of the stolen data, the blackmail continued for next 5 months while Mr. Xavier Justo threatened to sell the stolen data to other interested parties should Mr. Patrick Mahony refused to buy the stolen data. In October 2013, Mr. Xavier Justo met with Mr. Patrick Mahony at Shangri La Hotel in Bangkok where Mr. Xavier Justo verbally threatened Mr. Patrick Mahony that if PetroSaudi refuses to pay for the stolen data Mr. Xavier Justo would sell it to other parties and that it could cause damage to PetroSaudi. However, PetroSaudi refuses to pay and Mr. Patrick Mahony told Mr. Xavier Justo that PetroSaudi hadn’t done anything wrong and that the stolen date would not suggest any wrongdoing.
In May or June 2014 Mr. Xavier Justo was then contacted by Ms. Claire Brown by telephone and at that point Ms. Claire Brown who chose to remain anonymous just mentioned to Mr. Xavier Justo that she is interested in the files and suggest to meet up as she will also be in Bangkok. They met at Plaza Athene at 10 am and that is how Ms. Claire Brown was also referred to as “Athene Ban” in his WhatsApp conversation. During the meeting, Mr. Xavier Justo did not reveal his name and he only informed Ms. Claire Brown that he was an ex-employee of PetroSaudi and that he has information with regards to PetroSaudi’s businesses including the transaction with 1MDB. Mr. Xavier Justo also showed Ms. Claire Brown a one page sample of the screenshot of PetroSaudi’s data (email) with attachment similar to the one Mr. Xavier Justo had previously showed Mr. Patrick Mahony and Ms. Claire Brown took five pictures using her Apple Macbook. Mr. Xavier Justo informed Ms. Claire Brown that the data was stolen and both Mr. Xavier Justo and Ms. Claire Brown discussed that their association is to be kept confidential. Both it would seem, knew they were committing a crime, but still went ahead with the discussions.
Ms. Claire Brown assured Mr. Xavier Justo that she had good relations with Mr. Gordon Brown, former prime minister of United Kingdom and with other influential politicians in Malaysia and she would be able to get him a good deal for the stolen data. A second meeting was arranged in August 2014 again at Plaza Athene, Bangkok. Mr. Xavier Justo showed 20-30 documents but did not pass anything to Ms. Claire Brown. Ms. Claire Brown was interested only in one particular document, a joint venture agreement between PetroSaudi and 1MDB, when that was shown by Mr. Xavier Justo, Ms. Claire Brown went out in search for a buyer and approached Ms. Nurul Izzah Anwar, the daughter of Mr. Anwar Ibrahim and offered to sell the stolen data to Mr. Anwar Ibrahim through Ms. Nurul Izzah Anwar. In September 2014, Ms. Claire Brown contacted Mr. Xavier Justo to meet in Bangkok together with Ms. Nurul Izzah Anwar as Ms. Nurul Izzah Anwar was interested in buying the stolen data but she said she is short on funds and can only offer future government contracts. Mr. Xavier Justo declined as he needed the money immediately.
