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Will a free Justo be star witness in DOJ’s suits?

COMMENT What does PetroSaudi whistleblower and retired Swiss banker Andre Xavier Justo’s Thai royal pardon mean to Malaysia and the 1MDB probes which are being carried out in at least six countries?

According to lawyer Worrasit Piriyawiboon, his client got the pardon in conjunction with Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s 70 years on the throne and Queen Sirikit’s birthday.

Justo was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment on Aug 17 in Bangkok last year for attempted blackmail of his former employer, PetroSaudi International, where he served as a director, and received a royal pardon yesterday.

Now, questions are being raised as to who hastened or influenced the early pardon - the Thai royalty, Malaysia or the United States?

Or could it be his wife, Laura Justo, who had been pressing for his release and leaked a secretly taped telephone conversation last month?

On July 28, The Guardian published a lengthy piece, ‘1MDB: The inside story of the world’s biggest financial scandal’, which included an audio link to the taped conversation.

The taped conversation between Justo's wife Laura and PetroSaudi’s business affairs director Patrick Mahony revealed an immense wealth of information on the 1MDB scandal which was not revealed before.

Mahony spoke in French in the recorded conversation with Laura sometime in November 2015. He referred obliquely to a powerful person whom he claimed could help reduce Justo’s sentence.

“I told you the other evening, who the ultimate person is controlling this, and I am due to have another meeting with him soon… This guy is still stressed because it’s his political career on the line. He’s in deep shit and that’s all he cares about, nothing else...

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