Malaysia looks into claim 1MDB fugitive Jho Low is in China
The country has not received information on the whereabouts of Low, better known as Jho Low, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said on Saturday, state news agency Bernama reported. Anwar said he would need to check with the home ministry, which didn't respond to calls early Monday.
Bradley Hope and Tom Wright, whose book "Billion Dollar Whale: The Man Who Fooled Wall Street, Hollywood, and the World" chronicled Low's role in the rise and fall of 1MDB, said in a recent YouTube video that he has been residing in Green Hills, an upscale neighborhood in Shanghai. The two former Wall Street Journal reporters said Low was using a forged Australian passport under the name Constantinos Achilles Veis.
A spokesperson from Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said its passport office specialist investigators and intelligence offices assess every allegation of fraudulent use of the nation's passports. The use of a false Australian passport can lead to a maximum 10 years' imprisonment or a fine, or both, it added.
In the wake of the two reporters' claims, Puad Zarkashi, a senior member of the ruling coalition's United Malays National Organisation, called on authorities to bring back the fugitive financier, Malaysiakini reported.
Malaysia has been working for years to repatriate Low, who was first charged in absentia in 2018 by a local court with eight counts of money laundering. He was previously reported as having been in hiding in the Chinese special administrative region of Macau, and has publicly said he is innocent.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has also accused Low of stealing $1.42 billion from three bond transactions that Goldman Sachs Group arranged for the Malaysian wealth fund formally known as 1Malaysia Development Bhd.
Former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak is in prison in connection with 1MDB, while ex-Goldman banker Tim Leissner was also sentenced to prison for his role.
Some $4.5 billion was misappropriated from 1MDB. Low, who previously said he did consulting work for the fund, has been portrayed by some global investigators as the mastermind behind the scheme.
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