Ex-Petrosaudi executive Justo meets with Dr M
KUALA LUMPUR: Andre Xavier Justo who was convicted and pardoned in Thailand for attempted blackmail related to 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB), has met Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
The former Petrosaudi International executive met the Prime Minister for 90 minutes at the latter’s residence and he described the meeting as “great” and “tense”.
He posted a picture of him and the Prime Minister on his Facebook page and state the location as “Kuala Lumpur”.
“What a great privilege and what an incredible moment,” he wrote as the caption.
Justo was arrested, tried and convicted in Thailand for attempting to blackmail Petrosaudi over a stolen cache of documents in 2015.
He had also been a key player in the early days of the 1MDB scandal, when he sought to sell the same cache to a local news organisation whose subsequent reports based on the documents caused it to be suspended by the Home Ministry.
Petrosaudi and 1MDB entered an abortive joint venture in 2012 for which the Malaysian firm still paid the former US$700 million (RM2.7 billion). Justo’s documents, which he tried to sell for US$2 million to the Malaysian outfit, were believed to be linked to that deal.
He was granted a royal pardon in conjunction with late Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s 70 years on the throne and Queen Sirikit’s birthday in 2016.