Financial fugitive Jho Low claims he wasn’t ‘mastermind’ of 1MDB scam
The Malaysian party boy accused of using government funds to cozy up to celebrities like Leonardo DiCaprio and Paris Hilton says he’s being unfa🍸irly prosecuted because he’s just not the brains behind the multibillion dollar scheme.
In with Singapore’s Straits Times newspaper, fugitive financier Jho Low claimed that he was merely a middleman in the 1MBD scheme that siphoned some $4.5 billion from a Malaysian state development fund — 🌜leading to US and Malaysian criminal probes.
“The idea that I෴ am some kind of ‘mastermind’ is just wꦿrong,” Low claimed in the interview published Monday.
“This is not a unique situation. I was requested to assist because of my good relatioꦺnships with influential foreign businessmen and decision makers,” Low said.
Low. whose whereabouts are unknown, conducted his interview with theꦏ Straits Times entirely through email, according to reports.
He revealed, however, that he was offered asylum last year as authorities continue to🌄 seek to bring him back to Maylasia. But he did not say which country made the offer o♛r where he’s currently hiding out.
Low, 38, allegedly 🌸used the money the money to wine and dine celebrities, including gifting a $3.2 million Picasso to DiCaprio and helping to finance Martin Scorsese’s 2013 film “The Wolf of Wall Street,” staring DiCaprio.
He has been photographed partying with Paris Hi💜lton and reportedly dated Victoria’s Secret model Miranda Kerr, who was ordered by the Department of Justice to return some $8 million in jewelry he gave her, including an 8.8-carat diamond pendent.
Low’🎃s lavish parties have included performances from Usher, Kanye West and Britney Spears, who was reportedly paid six figures to jump out of a cake in 2012 and sing “Happy Birthday” t🅷o the portly financier.
The scandal has led to crimi♊nal charge♍s in the US against the two ex-Goldman Sachs executives who arranged the loans, and corruption and graft charges against Malaysia’s disgraced former prime minister, Najib Razak, who is currently on trial in his country.
In November, Low struck a deal with US authorities to return $1 billion in assets he allegedly looted from 1MBD, including a pr🦋ivate jet, and high-end real estate in Beverly Hills and New York.
Goldman Sachs has also been negotiating a settlement in which the bank could pay up to $2 billion and admit guilt for its role in the scandal.
Low, whose full name is Low Taek Jho, argued to th🐬e Straits Times that he’s become a scapegoat because he is “an easy target” companied to the other prominent people and institutions tied to the scheme.
The “inordinate amount of media scrutiny on me compared to that placed on the global financial and other institutions and advisers that actually org🍷anized and facilitated the fundraisings at issue is astounding,” Low lamented.
With Post wires