WHY PAY MONEY & TAMPER, WHY NOT JUST FABRICATE? Accused by Justo of tampering 1MDB data, Sarawak Report asks WHERE'S THE PROOF?

KUALA LUMPUR - Insisting again that she has never tampered with documents on 1Malaysia Development Berhad's (1MDB) now-aborted deal with PetroSaudi International (PSI), Clare Rewcastle-Brown pointed out that despite the repeated allegations, both firms have yet to provide evidence supporting these claims.

The London-based Sarawak Report (SR) founder and editor told Singapore's Straits Times (ST) that former PSI director Xavier Andre Justo, who made the latest round of allegations in an interview with the English daily at the Bangkok Remand Prison, “was full of untruths”.

“Why would I wish to alter anything? If I had, why haven't 1MDB and PetroSaudi brought out the evidence of such altering in all of the last five or so months?” she was quoted telling ST.

According to Justo, the arrested Swiss national currently facing blackmail charges in Thailand, Rewcastle-Brown had acted as middleman in his negotiation with a “Malaysian businessman” for the sale of the documents he had stolen from PSI when he left the firm in 2011.

He told ST that he eventually surrendered the documents to two groups after several discussions on how he would receive the payment of US$2.7 million (RM7.62 million) for sale of the data, which purportedly showed impropriety in the joint venture deal between debt-laden Malaysian investment firm 1MDB and the Middle Eastern oil company that fell through in 2009.

The first group, according to Justo, was Rewcastle-Brown and “her IT guy” while the second was the Malaysian businessman and his colleague.

Justo reportedly revealed the name of the Malaysian businessman and his colleague to ST but the daily did not name them in its interview published today, pending their response to the allegations.

The daily quoted the arrest Swiss national as claiming that those he met spoke about using the documents “to try and bring down the Malaysian government” and that they also referred to plans to “modify the documents”.

This is not the first time Rewcastle-Brown has been accused of forgery.

She was previously named in a New Straits Times (NST) report as the person likely responsible for the alleged doctoring of 1MDB data.

The Malaysian daily, in its July 17 report, had quoted Thai police saying that a London-based news organisation had tampered with the leaked PSI documents for the purpose of discrediting Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

Although Lt Gen Prawut Thavornsiri did not name the news outlet, NST noted in its report that the Thai police spokesman had said that it belonged to a Malaysia-born woman who moved to Britain to which the daily said was a likely reference to Rewcastle-Brown.

Earlier last week, Rewcastle-Brown was accused of forgery by former Sarawak Tribune editor Lester Melanyi who also claimed that the Sarawak-born journalist was part of a larger conspiracy with several Malaysian opposition politicians to unseat Najib.

Thai police arrested Justo on June 22 on charges of blackmailing PSI, an international company based in Saudi Arabia, linked to the 1MDB financial scandal. Following the alleged sale of the documents, several emails and documents were published by SR on the aborted joint venture.

In his confession on the matter, Lester has claimed to have met Justo “two, three times” in London between 2012 and 2013, and was convinced that the latter was not capable of blackmailing his former employer.

In a video on the “Friends of BN” Facebook page, the former journalist said all Justo did was share some information on PSI for free with Rewcastle-Brown during those meetings, which he accused SR of using to spin into “juicy” stories.

Lester, who claims to have been an SR representative in Sarawak at one time, further alleged that a London-based web designer by the name of James Steward Stephen was responsible for the alleged document forgeries under Rewcastle-Brown’s guidance.

However, Malay Mail Online later uncovered that the “James Steward Stephen” named by Lester, was only a railway services manager in Ipswich, UK.

Lester later admitted that a wrong photo of Stephen was used in his video.

Last Thursday, he also admitted to the Malay Mail Online that he was paid to expose a conspiracy involving Malaysia’s opposition, SR and Rewcastle-Brown in their alleged plot to unseat Najib through so-called doctored leaks of documents on 1MDB.

1MDB is currently under investigation by a special taskforce which includes the police, the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC), Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).

This following a damning report by business daily Wall Street Journal which in its July 2 article, reported Malaysian investigators had traced nearly US$700 million of deposits into what is believed to be Najib’s personal bank accounts. - Malay Mail