Fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho, better known as Jho Low, is allegedly residing in an exclusive area of Shanghai and living a life of luxury despite being wanted for his role in the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal.
The revelation was made by investigative journalist Bradley Hope and broadcast in a special episode of Finding Jho Low: Live with Bradley Hope & Tom Wright.
According to Hope, Jho Low is believed to be using a fake Australian passport and currently lives in the affluent Green Hills neighbourhood. He is reportedly seen driving luxury vehicles and continues to operate discreetly from an office in the Shanghai Financial Centre.
More strikingly, Hope and fellow journalist Tom Wright claimed that Jho Low is now acting as a strategic advisor to the Chinese government. His reported role involves assisting companies facing international sanctions to continue their global operations — a revelation likely to raise questions about international cooperation and enforcement in high-profile financial crimes.
The 1MDB scandal remains the largest of its kind, with an estimated USD 7.65 billion (RM35 billion) siphoned from the sovereign wealth fund.
Of this sum, USD 2.5 billion (RM11.4 billion) is believed to have been misappropriated into Low’s accounts. Another US$6 billion (RM27.3 billion) was channelled through business dealings with Chinese firms to camouflage the embezzlement.
The total loss to Malaysia is estimated to have exceeded USD 18 billion (over RM82 billion), with costs associated with the cover-up.
The report also spotlighted Low’s past extravagance, referencing his role in financing the Hollywood blockbuster “The Wolf of Wall Street” and his close associations with celebrities like Leonardo DiCaprio.
Hope and Wright also noted that advances in blockchain technology and greater transparency in global financial systems are finally giving authorities the tools needed to trace even the most elusive financial criminals. Jho Low, once branded the “Billion Dollar Whale”, has come to symbolise how one individual’s financial manipulation can destabilise national economies.
Malaysian authorities have yet to issue an official statement following the latest developments. Nonetheless, efforts to extradite Jho Low are ongoing.
The fallout from the 1MDB scandal also ensnared Malaysia’s former Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, who chaired the fund’s advisory board. Najib was accused of direct involvement in transfers that saw nearly USD 700 million enter his accounts between 2013 and 2014.
On July 28, 2020, the Kuala Lumpur High Court sentenced Najib to 12 years in prison and fined him RM210 million. He was found guilty of seven charges relating to abuse of power, money laundering, and criminal breach of trust involving funds from SRC International, a former 1MDB subsidiary. The sentence is to run concurrently across the charges, after the court dismissed his claim that the funds were donations from the Saudi royal family.
AstroAwani
