EX-U.S. GOVERNOR PART OF LOW’S TEAM
His legal team negotiated on behalf of Low in civil forfeiture cases linked to 1MDB
AFORMIDABLE and highly-paid legal team negotiated the stunning settlement on behalf of fugitive financier Low Taek Jho @ Jho Low, the alleged mastermind of the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) financial scandal, with the United States Department of Justice (DoJ) last week.
Singapore’s The Straits Times, in its report, said the legal team led by former New Jersey governor Chris Christie negotiated on behalf of Low, which among others, saw him ending his contest to assets amounting to some US$900 million (RM3.74 billion) that were seized by the DoJ in civil forfeiture cases filed between 2016 and 2017 in the central district court of California.
The DoJ was quoted as saying that the deal would in no way preclude criminal charges being brought against Low.
The report said legal sources, however, believed another settlement was possible in the coming months in connection with a criminal charge that Low faces in the Eastern New York District court.
US officials had last week trumpeted its settlement with Low as the biggest-ever recovery from an anti-corruption crackdown launched by the US government.
On the local front, the settlement agreement has put the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government, which came into power amid public sentiment on the 1MDB scandal, in a fix.
The report said the latest development could pose further challenges in efforts by Malaysian authorities to bring Low, 38, who has reportedly secured political asylum in a unspecified European country, to justice.
The authorities, said the report, must address the many unknown complications that the DoJ-Low settlement could have on the 1MDB court trials against former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.
The report highlighted the challenges the settlement agreement could have on the negotiations with investment bank Goldman Sachs and the Abu Dhabi government for compensation from the financial debacle, which the DoJ said involved the misappropriation of nearly US$4.5 billion.
The deal with the DOJ at times appeared doomed, according to interviews with key players involved in the negotiations, said
The Straits Times.
It quoted legal sources close to Low, saying that prior to talks with the DoJ, which started in the second half of last year, he was using Republican party operatives, such as Elliott Broidy, who was a close ally of US President Donald Trump, to devise how best to deal with his legal troubles, as well as those facing 1MDB and Najib.
“The negotiations were going nowhere until Christie took a more direct role sometime in the middle of last year and we began talks with the DoJ sometime in August,” the report quoted one legal source close to Low.
The Christie Law Firm joined Low’s defence team of Kobre & Kim and another outfit Lowenstein and Sandler sometime in the beginning of last year, shortly after Christie ended his term as New Jersey governor.
“Low was one of his first clients, if not the first,” one lawyer close to the situation was quoted as saying.
The report also quoted several executives close to the settlement deal as saying that optimism over the talks in the Low team were dashed in October last year when the DoJ decided to prosecute Low and two other former Goldman Sachs employees, Tim Liessner and Roger Ng.
Talks were said to have resumed before Christmas last year, but failed after Low’s team rejected the DoJ’s demand that any settlement between them would have to be approved by Putrajaya.
The report said the situation shifted in April following troubled relations between the DoJ and Malaysian government negotiators over the seizure of 1MDB-linked assets.
“Executives close to the situation said relations were strained because the US was not pleased when Malaysia secretly worked with Indonesian President Jokowi Widodo’s government in August last year to wrest control of the superyacht, Equanimity.
“Shortly after the seizure of the yacht, which has since been sold to gaming conglomerate Genting and renamed Tranquility,
Malaysia demanded to take over a Bombardier Global 500 jet, another asset allegedly purchased with embezzled 1MDB funds, that was seized by the Singapore government,” read the report.
The DoJ rejected Malaysia’s request.
Negotiations became strained in April over former Goldman Sachs employee Ng, who at the time was detained in Malaysia.
He was later extradited to the US to face criminal charges linked to 1MDB.
“Legal sources close to the situation said shortly after, that Washington decided to take the practical approach of hammering out a settlement with Low and turned its attention to the US investment bank,” read the report.
A final deal was approved by the US Attorney-General’s Office last month before it was filed in court this week.
The deal, said the report, is expected to be approved by the courts before the end of this month.
“Negotiators representing the Malaysian government were informed about the settlement just before the filing in the US court,” read the report.
The settlement filing states the team would be paid US$15 million, money which would be raised from the proceeds of the sale of Low’s stake in EMI Music Publishing.
This was seized by the DOJ and is now estimated to be valued at over US$400 million.