Tan Sri Tong Kooi Ong arrive at Kuala Lumpur High Court with his wife Puan Sri Dawn Cheong as witness for former Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s 1MDB trial November 22, 2022. — Picture by Raymond Manuel
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KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 22 — The chairman of The Edge Media Group today admitted at the High Court today that he gave 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) whistleblower Xavier Andre Justo US$2 million (RM9 million) as a gift for his contributions to cleaning up the country’s largest kleptocracy.
Tan Sri Tong Kooi Ong, 63, said he had given Justo the sum, despite not getting any information or documents related to the sovereign wealth fund.
“I felt that Justo for no whim and fancy and for nothing to gain paid a huge price to be jailed in Thailand for an action that saved Malaysia from the world’s largest kleptocracy.
“I thought he deserved to be paid and I thought the government of Malaysia should have awarded him something but in the absence, I decided that I should help him. I gave him the sum in my office,” said Tong.
The 43rd prosecution witness said this when queried by lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah at Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s trial involving the misappropriation of RM2.3 billion from 1MDB.
The witness was referring to an article published by an online portal titled “The Edge owner gives Justo RM8.2 million for helping expose the 1MDB scandal”.
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