Windsor Star

Fugitive Malaysian financier faces charges in the U.S. of bribery, money laundering

- ERIC TUCKER AND JIM MUSTIAN

The U.S. Justice Department on Thursday charged a fugitive Malaysian financier in a money laundering and bribery scheme that pilfered billions of dollars from a Malaysian investment fund created to promote economic developmen­t projects in that country.

The three-count indictment charges Low Taek Jho, also known as Jho Low, with misappropr­iating money from the state-owned fund and using it for bribes and kickbacks to foreign officials, to pay for luxury real estate, art and jewelry in the United States and to fund Hollywood movies, including The Wolf of Wall Street.

Also charged was a former Goldman Sachs banker, Tim Leissner, who pleaded guilty to money laundering conspiracy and to conspiring to violate foreign bribery laws. Another former bank official, Ng Chong Hwa, 51, also known as Roger Ng, was arrested earlier Thursday in Malaysia and accused of circumvent­ing internal accounting controls, prosecutor­s said. Lawyers for Low and Leissner did not immediatel­y return messages seeking comment. Goldman Sachs, which the indictment says raised about US$6.5 billion through bond offerings for the fund, also did not immediatel­y comment. Police in Malaysia said in July that Low had fled Macau to an unknown destinatio­n. He remains at large.

Leissner acknowledg­ed paying millions of dollars in bribes and kickbacks to government officials in Malaysia and Abu Dhabi, according to court records. He was ordered to forfeit US$43.7 million as part of his guilty plea.

The charges are the first arising from the epic corruption scandal at the state investment fund known as 1MDB.

The Justice Department in 2016 moved to recover more than US$1 billion that it said had been stolen, filing a civil complaint that sought the forfeiture of property including a Manhattan penthouse, a Beverly Hills mansion, a luxury jet and paintings by Vincent Van Gogh and Claude Monet.

In a speech last year in Washington, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions denounced the scandal as “kleptocrac­y at its worst.” The pilfered funds were used on a “lavish spending spree,” the attorney general said, including a US$265-million yacht and a US$100-million investment in the music label EMI.

“In total, 1MDB officials allegedly laundered more than $4.5 billion in funds through a complex web of opaque transactio­ns and fraudulent shell companies with bank accounts in countries ranging from Switzerlan­d and Singapore to Luxembourg and the United States,” Sessions said. The fund, 1Malaysia Developmen­t Berhad, was set up in 2009 by then-prime minister Najib Razak to promote economic developmen­t. It relied primarily on debt to fund investment and economic developmen­t projects and was overseen by senior Malaysian government officials, according to court records. The scandal has had major political ramificati­ons in Malaysia, where Najib in 2015 sacked his attorney general and a deputy prime minister for demanding answers about 1MDB.

A parliament­ary inquiry found many irregulari­ties but had no mandate to prosecute. Former leader Mahathir Mohammad, outraged over the scandal, came out of retirement and the opposition united behind him in the national elections, leading to Najib’s ouster in May.

Najib and his ex-treasury chief were charged last week with criminal breach of trust involving 6.64 billion ringgit (US$1.6 billion), charges that came on top of 32 earlier counts of corruption, breach of trust and money laundering that Najib faces in connection with the 1MDB scandal.

 ?? AP FILES ?? Protesters hold portraits of Low Taek Jho, also known as Jho Low, illustrate­d as a pirate during a protest in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in April. He and former Goldman Sachs banker Tim Leissner were charged by the U.S. Justice Department on Thursday in connection to the epic corruption scandal at Malaysia’s state investment fund known as 1MDB.
AP FILES Protesters hold portraits of Low Taek Jho, also known as Jho Low, illustrate­d as a pirate during a protest in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in April. He and former Goldman Sachs banker Tim Leissner were charged by the U.S. Justice Department on Thursday in connection to the epic corruption scandal at Malaysia’s state investment fund known as 1MDB.

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