Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Malaysian Deputy Finance Minister Liew Chin Tong on Thursday denied reports that fugitive businessman Jho Low had entered the country for talks linked to the theft of billions of dollars from state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad, or 1MDB. He made the denial in parliament while responding to questions from lawmakers on 1MDB-related matters.
Denial in parliament
Low, whose full name is Low Taek Jho, faces multiple charges including corruption and money laundering in the United States and Malaysia over his alleged central role in the misappropriation of at least $4.5 billion from 1MDB. He has denied wrongdoing, and his whereabouts remain unknown.
Sarawak Report, which first broke the 1MDB scandal and has continued reporting on it, said in May that Low had secretly re-entered Malaysia last year as part of a Chinese delegation to negotiate debts linked to the fund. The Wall Street Journal separately reported that Low was in talks with Malaysian authorities on returning 1MDB-linked assets.
Liew rejected both reports when questioned in parliament. “I deny the allegations,” he said.
Outstanding debts and recovered assets
Liew told parliament that the government still had to pay an estimated 20.1 billion ringgit, or $4.9 billion, of 1MDB’s debts. He said the fund’s total obligations stood at 51.4 billion ringgit and that Malaysia has so far recovered 31.3 billion ringgit in 1MDB-linked assets.
He said asset recovery efforts were continuing, including criminal and civil proceedings against Low and against financial institutions that enabled the scandal.
Cyprus villa confiscation order
In June, a district court in Nicosia issued a confiscation order for Low’s luxury seaside villa in Ayia Napa. The Attorney General’s office said it had jointly applied for the seizure with the Unit for Combating Money Laundering and that Low’s legal team did not oppose it.
Low bought the property in the Cape Greco area of Ayia Napa in 2015 for about 5.9 million euros. He used the purchase to secure Cypriot citizenship under the country’s since-abolished Citizenship by Investment Programme, receiving his passport on September 19, 2015, the same day the Cabinet approved his application.
Citizenship application and banking alerts
Low signed with citizenship broker Henley & Partners in May 2015. The firm has said it identified him as high-risk due to his political exposure and rejected him as a client, adding that it was never mandated by him.
Investigative reporting by OCCRP found that Henley worked with Low through a Cypriot intermediary company, earning 60,000 euros from his citizenship fee and a further 650,000 euros for helping arrange the villa purchase.
The purchase triggered anti-money-laundering alerts at Bank of Cyprus, which reported Low to Cyprus’s anti-money-laundering unit, MOKAS, the following month.
