Ho gives information in relation to its reports on 1MDB’s financials

PETALING JAYA: The Edge Media Group chief executive officer Ho Kay Tat (pic) has handed over the documents in relation to their reports into the financials of 1Malaysia Development Berhad to the police and Bank Negara.

“I also gave a statement to the CCID (Commercial Crime Investi-gation Department),” he said.

Ho said The Edge came to be in possession of the documents that unravelled 1MDB’s joint-venture with PetroSaudi Interna-tional after meeting with someone who was willing to shed light on the matter earlier this year.

He did not reveal if the person was Xavier Justo, the ex-PetroSaudi executive who has been arrested by Thai police for attempting to blackmail his former employer.

“This person showed us thousands and thousands of emails and document attachments. We read scores of them and were convinced of their authenticity because of the sheer volume and the email trails.

“We subsequently had an IT forensic expert confirm that there was no reason to worry that they were fakes,” he said in a statement yesterday.

He said the publication had a public duty to uncover the truth, adding that there was no sinister motive involved.

The media group said it was prepared to go to court over its latest expose on 1MDB, which also implicated businessman Low Taek Jho and PetroSaudi International.

“We would like to repeat what we have said before and that is we stand by all articles we have published on Jho Low and 1MDB,” he wrote in an editorial in The Edge Financial Daily yesterday.

On June 29, the Home Ministry issued a show-cause letter to the financial daily over its reports on 1MDB funds.

Yesterday, Home Ministry’s Publications Control and Al-Quran Text Division head Hashimah Nik Jaafar said they had received a reply from The Edge Media Group and that the ministry was currently studying it.