Thai police: Justo may have laundered money

(Bernama) – Swiss national Xavier Andre Justo (pic), who has admitted to blackmailing his former employer PetroSaudi International, may have laundered money when he sold copies of confidential documents to a media group.

Royal Thai Police spokesman Pol Lt Gen Prawut Thavornsiri said Thursday that the payment method with regard to the buying of information was a money laundering method. He said that the purchasers involved had pretended to buy a company and used the remaining money from the so-called purchase to pay Justo.

“We have evidence of the discussions on where to pay the money. Everything happened in Singapore,” he told reporters here.

This issue is about discrediting the government of a country, he said, without naming Malaysia.

He said Thai police also found that the information had been used by a group to cause damage in that country and that the group was linked to “the neighbouring country’s media, big media, and also linked to a former big name politician in the neighbouring country”.

“They communicated (with each other) by using email, WhatsApp. We have got all documents, every conversation,” he added.

The group met in Singapore and also Thailand, he said.

He also raised the possibility that the group, which had bought the copies of the original documents tampered with them as there were changes in the information when compared with the original emails that Justo stole.

He said Justo had admitted to everything and that he had also helped provide the link to other people whom he had contacted.

“When we examined what he had mentioned, we found it was true as he had said. For example, appointments at hotels, arrival and departure of people who joined the group. We also found the travel information, both to Thailand and foreign countries,” he said.

He said Thai police had all the information from Justo to carry out further investigations.

Police chief Pol Gen Somyot Pumpanmuang added that the case involved multiple jurisdictions because although the offence had taken place in Thailand, the business of the company involved many countries.

He said the issue was very sensitive as it affected the politics of a neighbouring country, adding that Justo had provided information to someone in order to cause political damage in that country.