FUGITIVE businessman Low Taek Jho and former Petro Saudi director Patrick Mahoney were the masterminds behind the 1Malaysia Development Bhd-Petro Saudi scam, said Swiss whistle-blower Xavier Andre Justo.

“In order to make such a scam happen, you need people to fabricate it. You need criminal brains. For the 1MDB-Petro Saudi deals to happen, they needed Jho Low and Patrick Mahoney to structure the deals cause they know how to use offshore companies and the loopholes.

“They were the two masterminds,” Justo said today on the sidelines of the 2018 Anti-Corruption Summit in Kuala Lumpur.

“After that, you have the people who got the money like Najib (Razak) and his wife and Tarek Obaid (Middle Eastern businessman),” said the 53-year-old.

On Low’s whereabouts, Justo said he had no idea.

“I don’t know where he is, but he will be arrested. He’s spending money but not making money and he will have no more one day. Not enough to stay in a country but it will take time,” said Justo.

Meanwhile, the former Petro Saudi manager defended Prince Turki Abdullah Abdulaziz Al-Saud.

“They only used him because he has a nice name – Al-Saud. It’s a useful name to have in Saudi but he was just a shareholder.

“He didn’t participate but he received a lot of money.”

However, Turki should return the money as it involved “tens of millions of dollars”, he said.

Justo had leaked documents from Petro Saudi relating to the joint venture, published by Malaysian and international media groups and sparking a money-laundering investigation. 

He was arrested on a Thai resort island in 2015 and sentenced to three years’ jail and released in December 2016 after a royal amnesty. – October 30, 2018.