Jho Low ‘threatened’ me over 1MDB coverage, says Tong

 

The Edge chairman Tong Kooi Ong (left) testified that Jho Low had told him to ‘be careful’ with what it publishes about 1MDB.

KUALA LUMPUR: The chairman of The Edge Media Group told the Najib Razak 1MDB trial that fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho “threatened” him over his newspaper’s coverage of the sovereign fund.

Tong Kooi Ong said the threats were made sometime in 2014 during a second meeting he had with Jho Low, as the businessman is commonly known.

He said he had met the Penang businessman for the first time earlier that same year, and also knew Jho Low’s father, Larry.

“He (Jho Low) told me he knew Najib and that we (The Edge) should be careful with what we write.

“I took it as a threat, but I just ignored it,” he said, when questioned by ad hoc prosecutor Gopal Sri Ram.

On telling Najib that Jho Low should be held accountable for misappropriation of 1MDB funds, Sri Ram asked Tong what kind of expression he expected to see from the former prime minister.

“I was hoping he would agree (with me),” Tong said.

Earlier, when cross-examined by Najib’s lead counsel, Shafee Abdullah, as to why he paid former PetroSaudi International director Xavier Justo a sum of US$2 million in 2019, Tong said: “I felt he had paid a huge price as he was jailed for an action that saved Malaysia from the largest kleptocracy”.

“The government should have (rewarded him). I felt I should gift him (Justo), and he acknowledged it as a gift.”

In 2015, Justo was sentenced by a court in Bangkok to 18 months on blackmailing charges.

Najib is standing trial on 25 counts of money laundering and abuse of power over the alleged misuse of 1MDB funds amounting to RM2.28 billion deposited into his AmBank accounts between February 2011 and December 2014.

The hearing continues before justice Collin Lawrence Sequerah on Thursday. - FMT