Literally out of nowhere, a young precocious Jho Low became one of the richest and most powerful businessmen in Malaysia. He was not only able to hold wild parties with the rich and famous of Hollywood, but he was able to acquire billions of ringgit of assets globally to become the envy to many in the country.
The Singapore Business Times disclosed for the first time yesterday that Jho Low has acquired one of the most expensive penthouses in Singapore worth S$43 million (RM116 million), on top of another property worth S$11 million (RM29 million). These properties were purchased in 2013.
The above adds to the growing list of “discovered” assets belonging to the 33-year old financial whizkid. The New York Times had earlier in February, disclosed that in 2010, Jho Low paid US$33.5 million for a Time-Warner Condominium in New York. He had also purchased another bungalow in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles for US$39 million. Jho Low also owns multi-million dollar high-rise lairs in Hong Kong.
In addition, Jho Low also acquired expensive properties which he subsequently “handed over” to Riza Aziz, the son of Rosmah Mansor. These included another condominium in New York costing US$33.5 million and another bungalow in Beverly Hills costing US$17.5 million. According to The New York Times, all these assets were acquired with cash.
Besides properties, Jho Low splurged on “art” as well, paying a whopping US$48.8 million for an abstract piece entitled “Dustheads” by Jean-Michel Basquiat.
With the multiple explosive exposés from the Sarawak Report, whose evidence tracked the international transfer of funds from 1MDB directly and indirectly to various entities owned and controlled by Jho Low, it is not too late for the Malaysian authorities to request a freeze of all Jho Low banking accounts and assets globally.
The Sarawak Report detailed how out of US$1.83 billion (RM6.59 billion) “invested” by 1MDB with and to Petrosaudi International Limited, Jho Low pocketed US$1.19 billion (RM4.3 billion) directly via Good Star Limited, while US$260 million was used indirectly to further his own interest to acquire UBG Bhd in Malaysia.
Malaysians are completely bewildered as to why the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar appears rooted to the spot when investigating and taking action against the perpetrators of the heist of the century.
The evidence trails have already been carefully laid out for the police force, and yet, after months since the exposés, no concrete steps have been taken to try to put these robbers behind bars. The police for example, hasn’t even questioned Jho Low. This is despite the IGP being ruthlessly efficient when investigating other inanities like “royal my foot”.
Hence we call upon the IGP to not only to arrest Jho Low to assist with investigations, he should start the process to seek his international counterparts to freeze all Jho Low’s assets and banking accounts to ensure that no more of the money which were fraudulently embezzled from 1MDB gets frittered away.