1MDB fraud mastermind Jho Low reportedly hiding in Macau

Malaysia’s anti-graft regulator has confirmed that it suspects alleged 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) fraud mastermind Jho Low is hiding in the Chinese special administrative region of Macau.

In a written reply to the Al Jazeera media network, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) said that it “believes the individuals wanted for the 1MDB case, especially Jho Low, are hiding in Macau”, adding that it was confirmed by “several individuals who have seen Jho Low in Macau”.

Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and the law minister in his Cabinet, Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said, have previously said the government

is working with other countries

on bringing the fugitive businessman back to the country. As the alleged mastermind behind

the 1MDB corruption case,

Low is wanted by the authorities globally and his arrest is viewed to herald the denouement of the Malaysian scandal described by the US Justice Department as the biggest case of kleptocracy it has investigated.

The scandal first came to light in 2015 when the Wall Street Journal and Sarawak Report said nearly US$700 million (S$950 million) was suspected to have been taken from 1MDB and deposited into then Prime Minister Najib Razak’s personal bank account.

Najib, who launched 1MDB in 2009 for strategic investments,

began serving a 12-year jail sentence

in August 2022 after he was found guilty of graft tied to a 1MDB subsidiary. Low was said to be an adviser to Najib.

Low now faces separate federal criminal charges for allegedly embezzling US$4.5 billion from the 1MDB sovereign wealth fund, which is now insolvent.

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation also accused Low of stealing US$1.4 billion from bond transactions that Goldman Sachs Group helped facilitate for 1MDB. 

The MACC had issued an Interpol Red Notice and arrest warrant against the Penang-born Low, after he was in 2018 charged in absentia for money laundering.

The revelation of Low’s whereabouts in the Qatar-based news network’s report on Tuesday also corroborates images surfaced by former Wall Street Journal reporter Tom Wright in September 2022 of Low being spotted in Macau with a Chinese handler.

In April, Mr Wright and Mr Bradley Hope, co-authors of the Billion Dollar Whale book documenting Low’s role in the 1MDB case, also revealed that Malaysia’s government had been working on a deal with China to repatriate the Malaysian ahead of Datuk Seri Anwar’s March visit to China.

The Cyprus Mail reported on May 18 that the European country had revoked Low’s Cypriot citizenship, awarded in 2015.

In March, Kuwait also

sentenced the fugitive financier to 10 years’ imprisonment

in absentia for money laundering.

Low captured international media attention as the “Asian Great Gatsby” after throwing lavish parties and romancing supermodels with diamonds worth millions of dollars, allegedly siphoned off 1MDB funds.