(Nov 8): Two men with links to Low Taek Jho launched a bid last year to buy a controlling stake in a bank in Mauritius, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Low, better known as Jho Low, is the alleged mastermind of a multibillion-dollar financial scandal involving state investment fund 1Malaysia Development Bhd.
Low is accused of helping divert billions of dollars from 1MDB. He has denied the accusations.
WSJ said the deal took place in the months after the US Justice Department alleged in a July 2016 civil asset-forfeiture lawsuit that Low helped divert billions of dollars from 1MDB.
In late 2016, former Goldman Sachs Southeast Asia chairman Tim Leissner, who handled the bank's 1MDB account, and Thai businessman Phengphian Laogumnerd, a friend of Low, worked together to buy Qatari-owned Century Banking Corp. of Mauritius.
However, the central bank of the Indian Ocean island nation blocked the transaction.
Worried about a possible connection between Leissner and the global 1MDB scandal, the bank also notified the US Federal Bureau of Investigation about the bid, according to WSJ.
Leissner handled 1MDB for the Wall Street bank from the fund's creation in 2009, helping raise billions of dollars of bonds for the fund, and he worked with Low from the time that Low was an adviser to a fund that eventually became 1MDB.
He was suspended for writing an unauthorised letter of recommendation for Low.
Phengphian also has a business connection with Low: In July 2017, he acquired from the Low family trust a controlling stake in a lingerie business in London.
The Mauritius bank, Century Banking, is owned by Ghanim Bin Saad Al Saad Group of Qatar. Low's family trust previously bought a high-end building in London from the group in 2014. The Justice Department is also trying to seize it.
Months after Leissner quit Goldman Sachs, following his suspension, in March 2016, Phengphian worked with him to help complete a purchase of Century Banking, according WSJ.
Phengphian, a manager of Songkhla Finishing Co., a technology contracting company in Thailand, would fund the deal.
The corporate registry in Mauritius shows Leissner set up a company called Blackfish International (Mauritius) on Sept. 29, 2016.
On Nov 11, Phengphian became a member of the Century board, and on Dec 29 he transferred about EUR10 million ($15.8 million) from an account in Hong Kong to his Century Banking account.
After that transaction -- in late December 2016 or early this year -- Leissner applied to Mauritius authorities to acquire a controlling stake in Century Banking and become an executive and board member.
The Bank of Mauritius, the nation's central bank, soon launched an investigation into the transaction after it learned that Leissner was associated with 1MDB and Low, according to people familiar with the matter.
The central bank later rejected Leissner's application for “compliance concerns”.
