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The US Department of Justice alleges US$4.5 billion was siphoned from the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) state investment fund between 2009 and 2014, and Malaysian financier Jho Low has been accused of masterminding the fraud. He is wanted in several countries despite denying all wrongdoing. The Malaysian government has sought his return to Malaysia to face charges but his whereabouts are unknown, although he has been widely speculated to be in China. Funds from 1MDB were allegedly used to buy assets and real estate for Low and his associates, including a private jet, a luxury yacht, artwork by Pablo Picasso and Claude Monet, and diamond jewellery. Some of the funds were used to finance Hollywood films such as The Wolf of Wall Street.
Hong Kong’s securities watchdog has bared its teeth in many cases of malpractice and should spare no effort to safeguard city’s reputation as a global financial hub.
- Malaysian state fund 1MDB has sued Petrosaudi International executive Patrick Mahony for US$1.83 billion over a 2009 joint venture with the oil exploration firm
- 1MDB, in its statement of claim, said it was misled into believing that a Saudi king owned Petrosaudi, which led to it agreeing to the joint venture
Ex-1MDB general counsel Jasmine Loo told Malaysia’s High Court she would prepare documents for Jho Low, who would hand-deliver them to Najib Razak’s home in Kuala Lumpur.
Malaysian authorities are counting on the convicted former Goldman Sachs banker, Roger Ng’s cooperation, to recover as much as possible from the billions looted from the fund.
Najib was jailed in 2022 after being convicted of corruption linked to the plunder of state fund 1MDB. The decision means he could now be eligible for release as early as next year.
Najib’s lawyers contended that the statements by several individuals in the documentary were in contempt of court as his corruption trial was still ongoing.
It is unclear how long the former Goldman Sachs banker will be in the country of his birth. Ng has been sentenced to serve a 10-year term in the US for his role in the 1MDB scandal.
Jasmine Loo, formerly a legal counsel to the 1MDB fund, was said to have fled Malaysia before the 2018 general election.
Kee Kok Thiam’s family said he suffered a ‘sudden massive stroke’, weeks after he was reportedly questioned by Malaysia’s corruption authorities.
Malaysia’s Anti Corruption Commission said in a statement that it had confirmed the fugitive Malaysian financier’s whereabouts with several eyewitnesses, including another 1MDB suspect.
Malaysia’s Law Minister Azalina Othman Said confirmed the anti-corruption body has been cooperating with foreign agencies to speed up the process of bringing Low back to Malaysia.
Kimora Lee, ex-wife of former Goldman Sachs banker Tim Leissner, claims shares she bought with money earned from her modelling career and clothing line were wrongly included as proceeds of his crimes.
PM Anwar Ibrahim says his administration is working with ‘many countries’ to repatriate Low, who masterminded the looting of US$4.5 billion from the 1MDB sovereign wealth fund.
Prosecutors accused Pras Michel of plotting with Low to attempt to influence the administrations of US presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump.
The ex-Fugees member says the Malaysian tycoon was willing to ‘spend any type of money’, but his ‘party guy’ reputation made it hard to get fundraiser invites.
Grammy-winning US rapper Pras Michel of hip-hop group the Fugees is accused of illegally lobbying on the fugitive Malaysian financier’s behalf as well as acting as an unregistered agent of China.
The subject of a possible contribution of up to US$30 million came up during ‘casual conversation’, the US star said during Fugees rapper Pras Michel’s foreign influence trial.
Prosecutors said Michel was paid US$70 million to funnel money from Low through straw donors to Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign and influence Trump to return dissident Guo Wengui to China.
The Malaysian financier was sentenced alongside a Kuwaiti sheikh and 3 other accomplices in the latest case stemming from the multibillion-dollar scam that saw Malaysian public money used to bankroll a global spending spree.
Ng’s lawyer has asked a US judge to let him serve his 10-year prison term for 1MDB-linked offences in a low-security federal facility where singer Lauryn Hill was imprisoned, and which served as inspiration for the hit Netflix show.
Ng was earlier convicted of helping loot billions of dollars from Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund, in a scandal that rocked the country’s politics.
Prosecutors said the length of the prison term they are seeking for Ng is justified under US federal sentencing guidelines because of the size of the fraud.
The reality TV star once played a card game at a Las Vegas casino and won US$350,000 worth of chips.
More tragedy in Thailand over massacre at nursery, murder of South Korean subway worker by her stalker, brazen attack on Filipino broadcast journalist.
In post-Covid Malaysia, a two-decade odyssey to become prime minister is realised, while a former PM is jailed for role in the 1MDB scandal, and the nation mourns after a devastating landslide.
Rising political star says deals with China mean it is hard to push for any serious action against Low, who was allegedly spotted in Shanghai.
Michel, 49, indicted last year along with fugitive financier Jho Low, is accused of illegally lobbying the Trump administration to drop an investigation tied to the 1MDB global bribery scandal and remove a Chinese dissident from the US.
Leading criminal lawyer Hisyam Teh Pok Teik will represent the ex-premier in the hearing before the Federal Court from August 15 to 26.
The New Straits Times said the fugitive financier, through his representatives, met with several government agencies for the settlement earlier this year.
Prosecutors say Ng helped embezzle millions of dollars from Malaysia’s state fund in one of the biggest financial scandals in history.
