Mohd Khairul Akmal Jasni, a former manager at PETRONAS, was charged for allegedly attempting to leak a confidential document titled "Q1 2024 Upstream Business Performance" to Petroleum Sarawak Berhad (Petros) on June 8, 2024 [1, 2]. The document was sent from his PETRONAS email to Petros chief executive Datuk Janin Girie and chief financial officer Mohd Azha Abdul Jalil, according to authorities [1, 2].

Earlier that year, Mohd Khairul applied for a position with Petros on January 24, 2024, and was offered a role as Head of Finance (Gas Aggregator & SRM) on March 27 with a monthly salary of RM25,000. He declined the offer due to salary demands of RM37,000, meaning he never took up the position [1, 2]. Petros human resources analyst Nurul Qurratu Aini Laila Junaidi testified that Mohd Khairul's application followed normal procedures and included a panel interview led by Azha Abdul Jalil and Datuk Abang Arabi Abang Narudin [1, 2].

A whistleblower initially sent a complaint to PETRONAS about the attempted leak on June 8, 2024, but then retracted it. PETRONAS officially received the complaint only on December 6, 2024, from the complainant's personal email [3, 4, 5]. PETRONAS whistleblowing officials confirmed that the original June 8 complaint was recalled before reaching them, as indicated by email metadata. Lailatul Badriah Razali from PETRONAS said, "They sent an initial [complaint] email on June 8, 2024, but we never received it as it was retracted. We only received the [complaint] email on Dec 6, 2024" [3]. Another PETRONAS official said, "Although the original email showed it was sent on June 8, we only received it on Dec 6 because the record was recalled before it reached the whistleblowing secretariat" [4].

After receiving the December complaint, PETRONAS referred the case to its Whistleblowing Committee and Human Resource-Industrial Relations Department for investigation [4, 5]. Mohd Khairul was dismissed by PETRONAS on December 20, 2024 [1, 3].

Mohd Khairul is charged under Sections 203A(1) and 511 of the Penal Code for attempting to disclose official information during duty. The offences carry penalties of up to one year imprisonment and/or a fine of up to RM1 million [1, 3, 2].

The investigation and legal process continue, with authorities pursuing the case following the December dismissal of Mohd Khairul from PETRONAS.