“We had a duty as a public service organisation to uncover the truth in matters of public interest and concern.”
KUALA LUMPUR: The Edge Media Group has confirmed in a statement that it handed documents, printed emails and a hard disk to Bank Negara on Monday to prove that “there was no conspiracy or political agenda on its part. Not reporting a wrongdoing is a crime.”
“We did nothing sinister. We had a duty as a public service organisation to uncover the truth in matters of public interest and concern.”
The Group handed another set of the same material to the Commercial Crime Investigation Department of the Police on Tuesday.
“We were not involved in any theft, we did not pay anyone, and we did not tamper with any of the emails and documents that we were given,” said the statement.
In fact, said Ho Kay Tat, the Publisher and Group CEO of the Edge Media Group, in the statement, “we have secured the data so that no one can tamper with them.”
This, he added, can be independently verified by the authorities. “Some of the information was too sensitive to be published. We have published others and these have never been challenged.”
“We have engaged with various politicians and government officials who have sought our help to get a better understanding of what led to 1MDB being in the situation it finds itself today.”
Ho admitted that the material now with the two investigating bodies was obtained by it (The Edge) after meeting with various contacts “to get hold of the truth” on 1MDB.
“Early in January, we met someone – we will not reveal the name – who was willing to share information on 1MDB’s joint-venture with PetroSaudi International,” said Ho. “The contact showed us thousands and thousands of emails and document attachments.”
“We read scores of them and were convinced of their authenticity because of their sheer volume and the email trails.”
Ho added that The Edge subsequently had an IT forensic expert confirm that “there was no reason to worry that they were fakes”.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.