A fugitive Malaysian money man who once partied with Leonardo DiCaprio, Paris Hilton and Usher has struck a $100 million deal with the feds to settle two lawsuits that accused him of buying luxury artworks with embezzled funds.
US officials said Jho Low, now believed to be living in China, has agreed to fork over paintings by Claude Monet and Andy Warhol as part of the settlement, as well as an upmarket Paris apartment.
In a statement, the Department of Justice said Low is also handing over property and cash worth $67 million that he had laundered in Singapore, Switzerland and Hong Kong.
The 42-year-old Wharton grad allegedly snapped up a string of assets using funds from Malaysia’s troubled sovereign investment vehicle 1MDB that he ran to bankroll his infamously extravagant lifestyle.
Low, also known as Low Taek Jho, was a fixture on the New York party scene in the mid-2010’s until his playboy image was shattered after the Obama administration announced plans in 2016 to claw back more than $1 billion in ill-gotten gains.
Prosecutors accuse Low of paying billions in bribes to win business for 1MDB that was laundered in the United States through costly real estate investments and even financing Hollywood films.
He allegedly pumped money into DiCaprio’s blockbuster movie “The Wolf Of Wall Street” in which he played disgraced stockbroker Jordan Belfort.
“More than $4.5 billion in funds belonging to 1MDB were allegedly misappropriated by high-level officials of 1MDB and their associates, including Low, through a criminal conspiracy involving international money laundering and bribery,” the DOJ said.
“1MDB was created by the government of Malaysia to promote economic development in Malaysia through global partnerships and foreign direct investment. Its funds were intended to be used to improve the well-being of the Malaysian people,” it added. “This agreement does not release any entity or individual from filed or potential criminal charges.”
Former Goldman Sachs banker Roger Ng was convicted last year of violating US anti-bribery laws, money laundering and illegally ignoring Goldman’s accounting controls.
He was handed over to Malaysian authorities to serve out his ten-year sentence handed down by a court in Brooklyn after a seven-week trial in March 2023 for pocketing kickbacks of some $35 million.
But Low continues to evade justice and still faces criminal charges in New York for his role in the scheme.
Ng’s former boss Tim Leissner, who cooperated with prosecutors and paid a $43 million fine to dodge jail, testified at his trial about the excesses of the self-styled playboy’s lifestyle.
He told the court that Low would stump up hundreds of thousands of dollars to fly in celebrities such as Paris Hilton, Megan Fox and Kim Kardashian to attend the parties that he threw in the Big Apple.
Leissner said that Leonardo DiCaprio was once paid $150,000 and flown on a private jet to a party in Las Vegas with funds embezzled from the sovereign investment fund.
Low was found guilty in March of last year in absentia by a court in Kuwait for laundering $1 billion through the Gulf state.
A judge sentenced him to 10 years in jail for his role in the scheme.
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