Till today, for instance, he cannot open a bank account due to his “illegal convictions” and “media traces” in the banking system.
However, that would not stop him from doing it all over again, he said at the Anti-Corruption Summit 2018 at Hotel Istana here.
He urged Malaysians to become whistleblowers, but to do it with great care.
Justo, who was arrested in 2015 for leaking documents from oil and gas company PetroSaudi International relating to its joint venture with 1MDB, said whistleblowers should learn from his experience and “do it in a proper way”.
If they did things “his way”, they would have to “face the consequences”, he said, referring to his leaking of documents.
“Spending 18 months in a Thai prison was the worst experience in my life. Seeing the outcome, it was worth doing it, but it was a very difficult thing to do,” Justo said, urging the public to seek legal avenues to blow the whistle.
Justo also spoke of the need to face life with integrity, saying crimes had to be exposed and that corruption did not occur only in the financial services. He said the existence of corrupt enforcement officers was a reality in most parts of the world.
“Some of you will be faced with choices in your respective fields. It may be a customer who will give you dubious explanations, documents that do not give you complete satisfaction, or maybe you will be pressured to close your eyes a little.
“The final choice will be yours. Your conscience and morals should motivate you… It is a difficult and important choice. Most of us have children. We are their guides and examples. They are the future.
“It is up to you to choose the values you want them to wear proudly,” he said.
Justo said his “struggle for justice” would not end until justice was served for him and his family.
“If I had to do it again, I would, except I would protect my family from these problems. Your loved ones should not suffer for your actions, whatever they may be.
“I suffered, and my family suffered immensely during my incarceration, even until today. To date, I cannot open a bank account in my name,” Justo, 52, said.
“But let us return to the more positive facts… What this experience has brought me is actually a sum of love and affection from my loved ones… The best part is probably the welcome I received in Malaysia.
“The pride of being able to explain to my son who his father is and what he really did is a future reward that I look forward to discovering. I had a very expensive price to pay, but it was worth it,” he said.
The PetroSaudi documents formed the basis of a money laundering investigation into the scandal. This landed Justo in a Thai jail for allegedly demanding payment in exchange for not disclosing confidential information.
Six months before his arrest, Justo handed Sarawak Report editor Clare Rewcastle-Brown thousands of documents, including 227,000 emails from the servers of PetroSaudi, which shed light on the alleged theft of hundreds of millions from 1MDB.
The documents which he leaked set off a chain reaction of investigations in at least six countries, leading to what US Attorney-General Loretta Lynch described as “the largest kleptocracy case” in US history.
Malaysia, too, has begun charging people, including former prime minister Najib Razak, in relation to the 1MDB scandal, following Pakatan Harapan’s victory in the May 9 general election.
Speaking to the press after his talk, Justo expressed optimism that justice would be served in all countries investigating the alleged wrongdoings in the 1MDB saga.
He said the Swiss authorities were probing two PetroSaudi officials in a 1MDB-linked inquiry into suspected theft of assets since November 2017 when he spoke out to clear his name after his release from jail.
Justo also expressed the hope that Low Taek Jho, better known as Jho Low, the businessman said to be at the centre of the 1MDB scandal, would be arrested, saying “he will soon run out of money”. Low is believed to be in China.
Low – who is wanted in Malaysia over a money laundering probe and is described in US court filings as the man who siphoned more than US$4 billion from 1MDB – has said he will not surrender to the authorities because he “will not get a fair trial”.