Compliance
Fugitive Financial Jho Low Seen In Macau – Media
There have been sightings of the fugitive, who has been charged in his absence with money laundering by a Malaysian court. The 1MDB case, covering billions of dollars, has been one of the largest financial scandals in Asian history, affecting financial capitals around the world.
Malaysia thinks notorious financier Low Taek Jho is hiding in
Macau, along with others wanted in the multi-billion dollar
1MDB scandal, Al
Jazeera has reported.
Several people have identified the fugitive in Macau, the
Malaysian Anti-Corruption Corporation is quoted by the news
service as saying. Others identified include 1MDB suspect, Kee
Kok Thiam, who was arrested and released by the MACC earlier in
May.
Authorities in Malaysia have been trying to repatriate Jho
Low – as he is widely known – for years. He was
first charged with money laundering in absentia in 2018 by a
Malaysian court and a warrant was issued for his arrest. Low
publicly declared his innocence that same year.
One of the biggest money laundering cases in history, about $4.5
billion was siphoned off from the government-created 1Malaysia
Development Berhad, or 1MDB. As reported in August 2022,
Najib Razak, the former Malaysian prime minister, started a
12-year prison sentence. Four years ago he governed Malaysia and
suppressed local probes into the 1MDB scandal that led to
investigations in Singapore, Switzerland, Luxembourg and the
US.
Several financial institutions, such as Goldman Sachs and
Switzerland’s BSI, among others, were embroiled. Goldman Sachs,
for example, paid $3.9 billion to
settle its case.
The Najib administration formed 1MDB in 2009 and the former
premier was accused of taking more than a $1 billion from it.
The 1MDB scandal caused soul-searching over the AML controls of
financial institutions worldwide. It also had surreal elements:
money was taken from the fund to finance the Wolf of Wall
Street, a Hollywood movie about a fraudster.
