Justo may have also laundered money, say Thai police

Swiss citizen Xavier Andre Justo, who admitted to blackmailing his former employer PetroSaudi International, may have laundered money when he sold copies of confidential documents to a media group, according to Thai police.

The payment method involved in buying the information was a money laundering method as the payment took place in an island whereby they pretended to buy a company and used the remaining money from the (so-called) purchase of the company to pay Justo, said Royal Thai Police spokesman Pol Lt Gen Prawut

Thavornsiri.

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

This issue is about discrediting the government of a country, he said, without naming any country, but which is widely believed to be Malaysia.

He said Thai police also found that the information was used by a group to cause damage in a neighboring country and that this 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 information compared with the original emails that Justo stole.

He said Justo had admitted to everything, which is helpful for the case, and Justo also helped provide the link to other people whom he had contacted based on the information as to the date and time of the appointment(s) and location(s).

"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 the Thai police had all the information from Justo to do further investigation.

Meanwhile, Police chief Pol Gen Somyot Pumpanmuang said the case involved multiple jurisdiction because although the offence took place in Thailand, the business of the company (Petro Saudi) involved many countries.

This is very sensitive issue which affected the politics of a neighbouring country, he said, adding that Justo was providing information to someone to use it to cause political damage in a neighbouring country.