Jho Low p.r. advisers pocketed PPP funds
A pair of public relations firms that represented Jho Low — the party-boy fugitive at the center of a Malaysian bribery scandal — has snagged hefty coronavirus relief loans, records show.
Reevemark — a crisismanagement shop on Madison Avenue that raked in $1.3 million last year handling press inquiries and running an Instagram account on Low’s behalf, according to federal records — said it pocketed about $400,000 in cash from the US government’s Paycheck Protection Program.
Levick — a DC-based outfit that was paid $52,400 to provide the playboy businessman with “strategic communications counsel” — got a loan worth $350,000 to $1 million from the taxpayer-backed fund, which is intended to help small businesses stricken by the pandemic, records show.
Reevemark and Levick Strategic Communications both won coronavirus loans from the feds in April after helping Low defend his public image. Both firms were hired by Kobre & Kim, a law firm representing Low, whom the feds have accused of siphoning billions of dollars from a Malaysian state development fund.
The rogue money man — who helped finance Martin Scorsese’s 2013 flick “The Wolf of Wall Street” and spent his ill-gotten gains wining and dining celebrities like Leonardo DiCaprio and Paris Hilton — is now facing federal charges linked to the 1MDB embezzlement scheme. He remains at large.
Reevemark’s relationship with Low ended Dec. 31, while Levick cut ties with him in October, according to federal filings.
But Reevemark bragged on its Web site that its work led to “significantly more positive coverage” for Low and helped cast his October civil settlement with the feds as “the result of good faith negotiations.”
Small Business Administration data indicate the PPP loan didn’t help Reevemark retain any jobs, but the firm said it has in fact kept all its staffers on board.
“Like dozens of p.r. firms, we accessed these funds to retain our employees during COVID,” Reevemark said in a statement.
The PPP funds helped Levick retain 20 jobs, according to federal data. Firm CEO Richard Levick did not immediately respond to a request for comment.