Malaysia’s police are having trouble getting their foreign counterparts to help in the search for Low Taek Jhow, also known as Jho Low, the alleged mastermind behind the 1MDB scandal, newspaper Malaysiakini reported.
Inspector-General Abdul Hamid Bador said other countries lacked the sincerity to cooperate, and were even denying Low’s presence in their jurisdictions despite Malaysian intelligence indicating otherwise, the local newspaper reported. The police are maintaining their promise to bring back the fugitive financier by year-end.
The billionaire businessman was reportedly hiding out in Macau, Hong Kong and even mainland China for at least brief periods last year, while he was wanted by Malaysian authorities. He was said to have been able to enter Macau despite an Interpol notice, because neither Malaysia nor Singapore had requested his arrest from the two SARs. An Interpol notice alone is not enough to obligate local authorities to intervene.
Bringing in Jho Low to face criminal charges in Malaysia would be a major step in the country’s renewed investigation into troubled state fund 1MDB, which saw more than $4.5 billion allegedly misappropriated.
The police have declined to say where they suspect Low to be located or from which authorities they’re seeking cooperation, while ruling out the U.S. and the United Arab Emirates. In September, Abdul Hamid said the financier was in a jurisdiction with which Malaysia has an extradition treaty, and that he was in talks with a party they suspect of protecting him.
Low recently struck a deal with the U.S. Justice Department to return almost $1 billion of assets to resolve forfeiture cases linked to him. He has consistently denied any wrongdoing. DB/Bloomberg
No Comments