Kuala Lumpur: . Tong Kooi Ong testified that the financial publications had run many news stories about 1MDB’s state of affairs during Najib’s tenure as prime minister. As a result, the government suspended the papers for three months in July 2015, he said, although the suspension was lifted by the High Court later that year.“Paul warned me that the PMO was ‘all powerful’ and that we should be careful,” said Tong. Stadlen is Najib’s former media adviser.
One of the emails said that PSI was a private company, and was not owned by the Saudi Arabian government. “I explained to him that from the US$1 billion 1MDB invested in the joint venture with PSI, US$700 million went to Good Star Limited,” Tong said, adding that the recipient of the funds was a company which belonged to fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho . Tong said former 1MDB CEO Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi took instructions from Low.