DR M'S MEN ZOOM IN ON NAJIB'S JUSTO: Was he paid RM15mil to shut up?

Former PetroSaudi International (PSI) staff Xavier Andre Justo may have been paraded in government-controlled media as a criminal for leaking information belonging to his former employer, but why was he paid some RM15 million to begin with?

This was a question raised by veteran newsman A Kadir Jasin, who is seen as a close ally to former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

He was referring to a report that Xavier was given RM15 million when he left PSI after supposedly breaching the law.

"Logically, any staff who have violated the law or rules, would be sacked without compensation and if there are criminal elements, a police report would be made.

"But Xavier who was accused of breaching the law and rules was given RM15.51 million in compensation," said Kadir (photo) in a blog posting today.

Kadir expressed puzzlement whether Arab companies gave out lucrative compensation for staff who breached the law.

"Or was Xavier paid RM15.51 million for him to shut up?" said Kadir.

Xavier, who had received the compensation, allegedly demanded for another RM10 million in exchange for not leaking information belonging to PSI to third parties.

This information subsequently found its way to whistleblower portal Sarawak Report.

Arrested on grounds of blackmail

PSI's leaked information, which included its communications with 1MDB, had put the latter in a spot as it revealed questionable fund transfers to a company allegedly controlled by Malaysian billionaire Jho Low, who is close to Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's family.

PSI subsequently lodged a police report against him and Xavier was on Monday arrested in Thailand on grounds of blackmail.

Malaysian authorities claimed Xavier had tampered with the information given to Sarawak Report to put 1MDB in bad light.

This was based on an analysis by Protection Group International, which was hired by PSI to investigate the leak.

Both 1MDB and PSI had not denied the allegations made by Sarawak Report based on the leaked data but merely insisted they were based on "tampered" evidence.

Sarawak Report had challenged PSI and 1MDB to sue the portal if its reports were untrue. - M'kini