According to the report, Swiss national, Justo, 48, who was PetroSaudi International (UK)’s IT manager until April 2011, is suing Tong for damages in the island nation’s High Court.

Justo says that he was owed US$2 million after handing over two data storage drives at Fullerton Hotel to Tong in February last year.

He claims that part of the deal struck was reflected in a document entitled “Sale of Justo Property IT Software”signed between Tong and himself. He also cited WhatsApp exchanges and meetings held in Bangkok and Singapore involving Tong.

Sarawak Report editor Clare Rewcastle-Brown, who published several of the documents on her blog, was also said to have attended a meeting in Bangkok two years ago.

In the present suit, Justo, who says he was never paid for the data, is asking for its return and for the destruction of all copies of documents made from it.

The storage drives are said to have contained documents belonging to 1MDB and PetroSaudi, its one-time partner in a 2009 joint venture undertaking which never took off.

Tong, who admits being present at the Fullerton Hotel meeting and signing the document, however denies the claim, saying instead that Justo was not entitled to recover the data since it was “widely reported” to have been stolen from PetroSaudi. He also denies having induced Justo into delivering the data drives.

Justo is currently serving a three-year jail term in Thailand for attempted extortion and blackmail of his former employer.